Akatsuki no Naruto
by Takeshi1225
Summary: During a mission Naruto sacrificed his life to save his teammates, but was saved by Obito Uchiha. Now declared dead in his home village Naruto is recruited into The Akatsuki, a group of S-Classed missing-nin dedicated to peace by eradicating corruption. Knowing the truth of the shinobi world Naruto is dedicated to bringing peace to the world, will he be able to do it? NaruSakuHarem
1. Chapter 1

Akatsuki no Naruto

Hey there everyone it's me Takeshi1225, the man with so many thoughts in his head it hurts his skull every day, coming at you with another story. This story is based on the story that made me want to join up and write some stories in the first place, course it took some months to sign up it was really hard to do so since I was still sixteen and didn't know much, but I finally did it and well you got Naruto Uzumaki: Successor of the Sage of the Six Paths, my first fanfiction story and now I'm giving you this, based on the story The Akatsuki originally written by Swagosaurus, now owned by Arch-Daishou, which I recommend you read, it's not finish though, but it's still good, I present Akatsuki no Naruto

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**Chapter 1: The Mission of Fate**

Team 7 was walking along a road headed to a mountain where citizens of a nearby village were trapped in and needed assistance, this was considered a C-rank mission and Team 7 was the lucky squadron that was chosen for this mission

The team was doing their usual thing Sasuke was brooding, Sakura kept on cooing around him and acting all fangirlish, Kakashi was reading his perverted book and Naruto was grinning like an idiot, but unlike the usual routine Naruto and Sasuke were sneaking intense glares at each other, ever since the fight on the roof things between them haven't been the same and that was starting to worry both Sakura and Kakashi

"There it is" Kakashi pointed out as ahead they all saw a grand high mountain far ahead

"Alright let's do this so we can get back home and get some celebratory ramen" exclaimed Naruto sprinting towards the mountain making the rest of the team have sweatdrop expressions

Once getting to the mountain they started climbing the mountain and entered a cave where they found some pieces of clothing

"This must be where the missing villagers have to be" Kakashi deduced

"Then let's go" Naruto ran deeper into the cave "Hello! Villagers where are you?!"

"Naruto you baka get back here!" Sakura yelled at her idiot teammate

"Forget it Sakura, he can't hear you" Sasuke told her

Kakashi sighed at Naruto's antics 'He's just like you Obito'

Deep in the cave Naruto made it to a giant cavern with blue crystals everywhere that shined bright lighting up the place "Whoa"

"NARUTO!"

Naruto turned around to see Sakura sprinted towards him with a pissed off expression that made him be scared shitless

"YOU BAKA!" she punched him in the face sending him down deeper into the cavern

Kakashi and Sasuke made it to see Naruto fall into the cavern and then having his head smashed onto the tip of a giant crystal and then fall to the ground with his body looking lifeless

Sakura screamed in fear in what she had done

"Congratulations Sakura, you finally killed Naruto" said Sasuke emotionless

"I didn't mean to kill him" she then fell to her knees and prayed "Oh Kami please forgive me, I never wanted to kill Naruto, sure he's annoying, but I didn't want to kill him, Please Forgive Me!"

Down in the cavern Naruto groggily got up and rubbed his head to ease the pain, as he tried to ease his pain he kept hearing a familiar dark chuckle

"**I said it before and I'll say it again, that little air head is going to be the death of you" **said the Kyuubi chuckling darkly

"Shut up you damn fox" Naruto said as he looked around to notice some blood on the crystal "Is that mine?" he asked checking his head for any gashes, wounds or signs of blood

"**No, your head is too hard for something like those crystals to put a dent in it"**

Naruto ignored the demon king's insult and started exploring around the cavern to notice there were traces of blood on the walls and crystals and it led deeper into the cave "Hey guys!" Naruto yelled "Guys?!"

"Naruto?" Sakura called out

"Hey guys there blood everywhere down here" he told them while feeling the top of his head "And I double checked it's not mine"

The rest of Team 7 jumped down and saw Naruto looking around the place

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed with tears of joy running up to him

Naruto turned towards his team just in time to be glopped into a hug from Sakura

"Thank Kami you're still alive" she said with joy that she wasn't a murderer, but she then realized what she was doing "You Baka!" she punched him upside the head

"Sakura please refrain from punching Naruto anymore, we don't want him to lose anymore brain cells" said Kakashi

"I'll try my best Kakashi-sensei" she told her sensei with a peace sign and her tongue sticking out

As Naruto got up he noticed something at the corner of his eyes and being curious he walked towards it and grabbed it from a crystal

"What do you have there?" Sasuke asked

"Check it out" Naruto showed him and Sakura what he had found

"It looks like" but before Sakura could finish her sentence the three of them fell through a hole from the floor that just collapsed right under them

Kakashi hurriedly ran to the hole, but suddenly a giant rock fell from the ceiling landed on top of the hole

'No way that's a coincidence' Kakashi thought "Show yourself" he ordered

Then out of the shadows came a bunch of shinobi

"Sound-nin"

"Kakashi of the Sharingan" said one of the sound-nin

"Killing you will make us legends" said another who had the itch to kill

Kakashi didn't respond to their words, instead he just sent killer intent their way making them sweat a bit and then he grabbed his headband and revealed his sharingan

**With Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura**

Naruto groaned as he got back up, but then he was hit upside the head again

"Baka! You shouldn't have picked up that stupid thing" Sakura berated Naruto

"Naruto do you still have it?" asked Sasuke

"Yeah sure I got right" Naruto then noticed he didn't have what he found "Oh Damn It I Lost It!"

"Good going baka" Sakura mumbled

Sasuke didn't need to see the thing again anyway because he knew what it was 'A sound-nin headband, what the hell are they doing here?'

As Naruto was taking a lecture from Sakura he then heard a noise coming deeper into the tunnel they were in "Do you hear that?" Naruto asked

"Hear what?" asked Sasuke not hearing anything except for Sakura's voice

"There it is again"

"Naruto it's nothing but your stupid imagination, now stop acting like a baka" Sakura berated him, but she then went quiet when she saw Naruto get up with a serious look on his face

Naruto concentrated hard on the small noise, it was far off and very hard to hear, but Naruto managed to make it out

It was a cry for help

"Somebody's Down There!" Naruto yelled and ran deeper into the tunnel ignoring Sakura calling out his name

As he kept running the cry for help was clearly heard now and Naruto just kept sprinting down faster until he made it to another large cavern to find a young naked girl with long silky orange hair that had bangs that covered her forehead, probably a year older than Naruto, who was crying, had scratches all over her body and was tied up with chains

"Please… help me" she meekly whispered

Seeing this made Naruto's blood boil 'WHAT KIND OF SICK BASTARD WOULD DO THIS!' the anger he felt was giving fuel to the Kyuubi's chakra pumping it through Naruto's body, using the new strength he just acquire he grabbed the chains that constricted the young helpless girl and ripped them off with little effort

The girl was in fear of what this newcomer might do to her that she covered her breasts and crossed her legs "Please… no more torture… please don't deflower me" she pleaded with fear and tears pouring down her eyes

Naruto had mixed emotions of sadness and pity for the young girl and anger for the sick bastards who harmed this young girl, but being pissed would have to wait, Naruto unzipped his jacket which made the girl flinched, no doubt she thought she was finally going to get raped, but instead she felt a jacket put around her making her look up to see a blonde spikey haired boy with six whisker marks, three on each cheek, but his eyes were the most amazing and captivating part of his features that she couldn't take her eyes off of

"Who are you?" she asked for the name of her hero

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to become the next Hokage" he answered her question with confidence

"Hokage? You're a leaf-nin?" she asked him with hope

"Yeah, me and my team came to help save you and the rest of the villagers"

"The rest…" the girl then started to cry again and just grabbed Naruto and dug her head "There are no other villagers… I'm the only one left" she continued to cry into Naruto's chest remembering all of her fellow villagers that have been killed by the monsters who captured them

Naruto just held the girl feeling sad and angry that they hadn't made it in time to save the others

"I'm so scared" she cried into his chest "I've never been this scared before in my life"

Naruto couldn't stand seeing this girl cry, he then pulled her away and grabbed her chin so she could look straight into his alluring eyes "Listen miss…"

"Akiko" she told Naruto her name

"Akiko, I promise that I will get you out of here and back home with your family, even if it means I have to sacrifice my life" Naruto promised her

"Really?" she asked with hope in her eyes

"Of course, I never go back on my word, because that's my nindo, believe it" he told her with pure confidence

Akiko stared at Naruto with so much admiration that she started crying tears of joy and hugged him even tighter "Arigatou"

Naruto smiled and let her cry on his chest and rubbing the back of her head giving her comfort

It was a nice moment, but sadly it was ended when someone behind Naruto cleared their throat

Naruto looked behind himself to see Sakura glaring at him and Sasuke with an emotionless look

"Naruto… what exactly are you doing?" Sakura asked him with malice in her voice

Akiko looked behind Naruto to see a pink haired girl in a red battle dress and what she made out as an emo with a hair style that looks like the ass of a duck

"W-w-who are they?" Akiko asked Naruto scared of these two new arrivals

"Don't worry they're my teammates, they're going to help me get you out of here, ok?" Akiko smiled at Naruto with trust in her eyes "Sakura do you have an extra pair of shorts for Akiko?"

"What makes you think I got an extra pair?"

"Women are always prepared, or at least that's what Ero-sennin tells me" Akiko flinched a bit "Don't worry Akiko he's not here and besides he's not one of those sick bastards who would defile a woman, he's an honorable shinobi like me" that got Akiko to calm down and crack a smile

Naruto was then pushed to the side by Sakura so she'd be in front of Akiko "The two of you go behind one of those rocks so I can help her and if you two dare take a peek I am going to slam your heads straight into the ground making you two look like a pair of ostriches" she threatened them

Not taking the chance Naruto ran behind one of the huge rocks and just stood there just staring straight ahead and not daring to look behind it

"That means you too Sasuke-kun, just because I really like you doesn't mean I won't use any force against you" she gave him a peace sign and stuck out her tongue

Sasuke just went "hn" and walked to the giant rock

**Elsewhere in the giant mountain**

A small battalion of 50 sound-nins were running down a tunnel

"Time to kill those brats" said one of the sound-nin

"Calm down ya moron, remember we're supposed to capture the Uchiha alive" another said to the blood lust sound-nin

"Got it, got it, but can we still rape pinky and the chained up bitch?"

"What do you think?" said the sound-nin rhetorically

"Alright!"

As the battalion was close to reaching the cavern they all stopped to notice someone was in their way

It was a man that stood tall and unmoving. He wore a long black cloak that reached to his ankles which had red clouds on it, he had black spikey hair and that was all you could see in his facial area because he wore an orange mask that was in the design of a swirl with a hole on the right side of it.

"Hey asshole, get out of the way" demanded the blood lust sound-nin "We're in the mood to kill and rape and you're standing in the way, so beat it!"

The man just stood their staring at them freaking them out a bit

"You pieces of trash love to murder and rape innocence… I shouldn't have expected anything less from the subordinates of Orochimaru, he really is an atrocious leader to his own village" the man stated

"What'd You Say About Orochimaru-sama?!" yelled an enraged sound-nin

"I said he is a pitiful excuse for a leader, only caring for himself and not teaching those the way of peace like a true leader, all he is good for is to let disgusting rats like you to run around this world considering it yours, thinking you can do anything you wish with no regrets or negative consequences, how disgraceful" he then started to leak out killer intent from his body that the sound-nin were falling to the ground or on their knees having a hard time breathing "You are worse than trash, every single one of you, that includes Orochimaru, this world and it's people would be better off without any of you and I shall be the one to dispose of this litter" his eye then glowed red "Permanently"

**Back with Kakashi**

After finishing off the group of twelve sound Kakashi placed his forehead protector back over his left eye "That takes care of that, now to find those three" suddenly Kakashi felt an enormous amount of KI straight down deeper into the cavern 'That much killer intent… I have to find them' Kakashi then dashed deeper into the cavern

**Outside, far from the mountain**

Far from the mountain stood four sound-nin, three were in the standard clothing with their masks on and one in bulky armor and a mask covering his face

One of the sound-nins were meditating concentrating on the shinobi in the mountain by sensing their chakra signatures thanks to a paper seal on his back that helps him be connected to their chakra signatures. The sound-nin then gasped as he sensed the battalion's chakra signatures start to deplete.

"What's wrong Takeru?" asked the sound-nin with bulky armor

"It's the battalion general Dai, they're chakra signatures are dropping"

"I guess Hatake was too much for them" said another sound-nin putting in his two cents

"It's not Hatake, it's someone else… someone stronger" Takeru told them "And their chakra signature, it feels similar to the Uchiha"

The other sound-nins eyes widened except for Dai who just grunted in reply "I had a feeling something like this would have happened" Dai then put up his index and middle fingers and yelled "KAI"

Suddenly a huge variation of explosions went off from inside the mountain

"WHAT THE HELL?!" screamed the three other sound-nin

"I placed thousands of explosive tags inside just in case something like this would happen" Dai told them

"You're going to cave them in?!" one of the sound-nin asked

"No Ishi, I'm doing much more than that" the three other sound-nin raised their eye brows in confusion "You see that stone structure isn't really a mountain… it's a volcano"

**With Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Akiko**

Naruto and Sasuke were still waiting for Sakura to help clothe Akiko

"Sasuke" Naruto started "Why do you hate me?"

Sasuke just remained silent

"I just don't understand, I don't hate you, so why do you still hate me, I thought we were passed this?"

Sasuke just still remained silent

"If you're not going to talk then at least listen to me"

Sasuke just still remained quiet

"Sasuke, I know we fight all the time, but you mean a lot to me… you're my friend, in fact you're my best friend"

Sasuke still remained quiet

"All my life I've been chasing after you, at first it was to pass you, but now… I just want to walk by you and I know the same goes for Sakura" Naruto looked down to the ground "Sasuke, I see you as a rival, as a comrade, as my best friend, but most of all… I see you as the brother I've always wanted"

Sasuke stood silent for a moment before asking "Why are you telling me this?"

"…I know this'll sound strange, but… I don't think I'm going to come back from this mission" Sasuke's eyes widened at these words "I don't know how, but I got this feeling in my gut that I won't be coming back alive"

"Shut up" Sasuke said, he then turned to him "Naruto"

"Okay you guys can come back" yelled Sakura

Naruto then jogged back to them to see that Sakura gave Akiko her entire pair of extra clothing from her sandals to her battle dress, she wore the exact same clothing as Sakura, except she still had Naruto's jacket on "Hey I see you're fully clothed Akiko-chan"

Akiko blushed at the added suffix to her name and nodded "Thank you for giving me your jacket, you may have it back now if you wish" she said as she reluctantly started to take it off, but she felt Naruto grip the jacket and put it around her again

"You can keep it, I got more at home" he assured her "Besides I can tell you like it so I don't mind one bit as long as you feel safe with it"

Akiko blushed as she stared once again into his captivating eyes with affection and admiration 'Naruto…-kun'

Sakura felt the heat rise in her cheeks as she glared at the two

"**Well, well, welly, well, well" **said Inner Sakura **"Look who's jealous"**

'ME?! JEALOUS OF NARUTO AND THIS GIRL?! YEAH RIGHT!'

"**Go ahead and act that way, but I'm your inner, I know what you really feel" **said Inner Sakura sounding all smug

'Shut Up!' Sakura cut off her connection with her inner "Anyway we should really get going guys"

"You're right Sakura-chan" Naruto agreed with his crush

The four then started to head out until they felt the earth shake

"What The Hell is Going On?!" exclaimed Sakura

Then suddenly a plume of lava shot out from the ground behind them

"LAVA!" yelled both Naruto and Sakura

"Come On We Have To Get Out Of Here!" Sasuke ordered as the four young teen ran for the tunnel, but they were suddenly blocked off as more plumes of lava erupted blocking the tunnel, the cavern was then being filled with lava

As team 7 and Akiko backed away they noticed they were surrounded by molten magma

"What Do We Do Now?!" Sakura cried "Hold Me Sasuke-kun!" Sakura jumped to Sasuke with her arms opened wide, but was met with the ground as Sasuke moved out of her way

'No way am I going to die with her constricting me'

"Naruto-kun I'm Scared!" Akiko cried grabbing his arm and squeezing the life out of it

Naruto looked around to find a way out and on the upper right he found another entrance of a tunnel. Releasing Akiko from his arm he ran to his right and created a **kage bushin **that locked it's fingers together and gave the original Naruto a boost, and as he was in the air he created another **kage bushin **that grabbed his arm and threw him up even higher. As he was high enough Naruto made his signature hand sign and yelled **Taju Kage Bushin no Jutsu **then a whole bunch of Naruto clones appeared and grabbed each other's legs, as the bottom clone landed in the middle of the ground he swung all the clones towards the tunnel entrance letting the original Naruto grab the ledge "Guys climb on, Sasuke help Akiko up here"

Sasuke nodded and bent his back towards Akiko "Hop on" reluctant at first Akiko climbed onto Sasuke's back "Now hold on" Sasuke then jumped on the Naruto clones backs and started running up them with Sakura behind them

Once they finally got up Naruto dispelled all the clones and tried to climb up but the ledge he was holding onto then broke, but fortunately for him Sasuke grabbed his hand and pulled him up "Thanks Sasuke"

"Let's just hurry up" he said and earned a nod from everyone before they ran into the tunnel

As they ran deeper into the tunnel they stopped dead in their tracks when they found fresh corpses of sound-nin in the tunnel

"W-w-what h-happened here?" Sakura stuttered out of fear

"I don't know, but I think it's best we don't find out" said Sasuke running deeper into the tunnel with Naruto and Sakura behind him and Akiko

As they all made it at the end of the tunnel they made it to another cavern

"Alright let's go!" Naruto exclaimed about to run, but a plume of lava came out of the ground

"Naruto You Got To Be More Careful!" Sakura yelled

"GUYS!" Team 7 and Akiko looked forward to see Kakashi on a ledge on the other side of the cavern

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!"

"Guys the Place Is Collapsing and Erupting You Guys Have To Get To Me!"

The three nodded as they started running trying to get to the other side while dodging as many plumes of lava, fire and steam as they could, everyone was following Sasuke since he had his sharingan activated so he could lead them to safety without getting harmed by any of the plumes "To the right" said Sasuke

"To what?" asked Naruto

Suddenly a plume of intense flames shot out from the ground and burnt the left side of Naruto's body "AHHHHHHHHHH" Naruto's screams echoed through the entire cavern that it made Team 7 and Akiko turn to him

"NARUTO!" they cried his name

Naruto tried to get up with all his will power and as he looked up he saw a gigantic boulder falling from the ceiling and it was about to crush Sasuke, Sakura and Akiko "NO!"

Sasuke, Sakura and Akiko looked up to see the boulder was about to crush them, but suddenly they were pushed away before the boulder landed hard on the ground

"NO!" Kakashi screamed

Sasuke, Sakura and Akiko looked up to see the boulder was on top of the left side of Naruto's body

"Kami no"

"NARUTO!" Sakura screamed her teammate's name at the top of her lungs

Sasuke, Sakura and Akiko ran to Naruto's side, Sakura and Akiko went beside Naruto while Sasuke was trying to push the boulder off

'Damn It Why Couldn't I Have Learned That Damn **Kage Bushin **Technique!'

Kakashi ran beside Sasuke and tried to help him get the boulder off, but it didn't even budge and inch

"Dammit!" Kakashi cursed punching the boulder

"G-guys" Naruto managed to choke out sounding weak and tired

"Naruto" Sakura said his name with tears in her eyes

"Hang in their dobe, we're going to get you out of here" Sasuke told his friend trying to not only convince Naruto, but also himself

Kakashi then went through some hand signs and then suddenly his hand burst with lightning "Get back" Kakashi then tried plunging his **Chidori** into the boulder hoping to break it apart, but sadly the **Chidori **only was indented into the boulder it didn't destroy it, Kakashi was filled with so much anger and despair that he ripped his **Chidori** out of the boulder then plunged it in again and again repeating the process

"S-sens-sei p-p-please… just stop… d-don't w-waste your ch-chakra on me" Naruto managed to choke out

Kakashi deactivated his **Chidori **but he still kept punching the boulder "Naruto… I am so sorry" Kakashi then started to cry "I failed Obito, I failed your father… and now I failed you"

"D-d-don't w-worry about it, y-you were a g-good sensei, s-sure you d-didn't teach me much, but you didn't turn your back on me either… and that makes you a great sensei in my book" Naruto's words made Kakashi cry even more "Akiko-chan… I'm sorry, but I don't think I can keep my promise to y-you"

Akiko cried and grabbed Naruto's hand "It doesn't matter Naruto-kun… you saved my life… and I could never thank you enough for that" she held his hand even tighter and letting her tears fall on the floor

"Sasuke" Sasuke looked at Naruto "Those things I said a while ago… it was all true… even if we aren't related by blood, I will always consider you my brother" he finished with his trademark grin

Sasuke then started to cry, all he had been doing was treating Naruto like crap and yet all this time Naruto considered Sasuke as if he was his own brother, someone who was very precious to him and now Sasuke was going to lose the only person he could ever consider a friend

"Come on… d-don't be s-such a crybaby" Naruto said with a grin

"Damn it dobe" Sasuke choked out wiping his tears with his arm warmer

"And Sakura" Sakura looked at Naruto with tears still pouring out of her eyes "I j-just w-wanted you to know… that I really did mean it w-when I said that I-I wanted to kiss your forehead"

Sakura's eyes widened with shock as she learned the truth, she then started to cry uncontrollably and then she buried her head into Naruto's chest "Naruto, please don't die" she cried in his chest "You can't die you baka"

The place then started to fall apart with rocks and stalactites and plumes of fire, lava and steam was erupting and pooling everywhere

"We have to go" said Kakashi

"NO!" Sakura yelled "We Have To Save Naruto!"

"Sakura there's nothing we can do" Sasuke told her

"SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!" she yelled at him making him go wide eyed "I'M NOT LEAVING WITHOUT HIM!"

"Sakura if you stay here then you'll die too"

"THEN LET ME DIE!" everyone's eyes widened except for Naruto's at what she screamed "I'm not going to leave his side anymore… not again"

"Sakura" Sakura looked at Naruto "I love you" her eyes widened "that's why I don't want you to stay here with me… I want you to live your life, please… just go"

Sakura's eyes were crying uncontrollably "I'm sorry Naruto… but I can't live my life… not without you"

"… I understand… Kakashi-sensei"

Kakashi nodded and grabbed Sakura and lifted her up and started taking her away

"NO STOP, LET ME GO, HE NEEDS ME, STOP IT, STOP! NARUTO!"

Sasuke bent down letting Akiko climb on his back and was about to leave when he heard Naruto's voice again

"Sasuke… protect Sakura-chan"

Sasuke turned back and nodded to his best friend one last time before running out of the cavern

Naruto just laid there remembering he had to do one last thing before he entered his eternal slumber 'Kyuubi'

"**So you decided to waste your last moments talking to me, I'm honored" **the Biju King said sarcastically

'Listen… I don't got that much time so please let me speak' Not seeing the harm in letting his host say a few words he agreed to it 'I'm sorry' Kyuubi raised one of it's eye brows in confusion 'All my life I had always been treated horribly… I've been ignored, insulted and was targeted as the reason for everyone's loss and misery, and it took me this long to realize that I've been doing the same thing to you' Kyuubi was listening to his vessel's word hearing what he was going for 'When we first met, I treated you as the villagers treated me and I remembered there was something familiar about your eyes… and now I realize that you had the same eyes that I had whenever a villager talked to me like that, filled with anger and sadness, but hiding it behind a mask, so in a way we're the same, sort of'

"**Sorry to rush things, but get to the point the lava's coming to burn your skin off"**

'What I'm trying to say is that if I had one regret it's that I didn't give you what I've always wanted in my entire life… a chance'

Kyuubi's eyes widened; a chance… was that what he really wanted?

'Since we have a little time left I want to do this right, so please listen' the Kyuubi listened carefully 'My name is Naruto Uzumaki and it was nice to meet you'

Kyuubi shut his eyes and said **"Kurama"**

'What?' Naruto asked

"**My real name is Kurama, I guess someone deserved to know my real name before I kicked the bucket, and it was nice to have known you Naruto Uzumaki"**

Naruto smiled, shed a tear and said "Thank you Kurama… do you… do you think that if we did this earlier, we would've went down a different path?"

"… **Yes kit, I do" **Kurama answered

"I bet there would have been so much more ramen down it" Kurama chuckled at Naruto's words "It was nice knowing you Kurama, thank you" Naruto then closed his eyes waiting for a no doubt painful death, but then he noticed that there was a shadow looming over him, as he opened his eyes he saw a man with spikey hair like his own except it was black, wearing a black cloak that had red clouds on it and he also wore an orange spiral mask on his face

"Don't be afraid young one, I am here to save you" the masked man told Naruto

"Are you my guardian angel?" Naruto asked weakly

"Yes… I am your guardian angel" he told him

Naruto then chuckled weakly 'Kurama… look, we're saved'

Kurama opened his eyes and looked through his container's eyes only to widen to see who had come to 'save' them **'No… NOT YOU!' **Kurama panicked **"NARUTO NO, DON'T TRUST HIM, HE'S NOT A GUARDIAN ANGEL, THAT'S MADARA UCHIHA, HE'S THE ONE WHO MADE ME ATTACK YOUR VILLAGE" **sadly Naruto could barely respond as the darkness started to take over **"NARUTO! NARUTO!"**

**With Team 7**

The team had completed their mission by bringing the last survivor back to her village

It turns out Akiko was the daughter of the village chief, who was so happy he reward team 7 handsomely with cash for saving his daughter, but when he heard that the credit went to Naruto and what had happen he felt so saddened by it and to honor the young hero the village had built a statue of him, thanks to a photo of team 7 showing his face thanks to Kakashi, in honor of his valiant sacrifice.

Now Naruto had two monuments in his honor from two separate villages

Team 7 was now in the village in front of the Hokage Tower

"You two go home, I guarantee that what's going to happen up there when I break the bad news to Lady Hokage isn't going to be pleasant"

Sasuke with hollow eyes and Sakura with tearful ones just nodded and watched as their sensei walked into the tower

Sasuke turned to Sakura "Sakura listen… Naruto made me promise to protect you from now on, I think you deserved to know"

Sakura just nodded in response

Sasuke just looked at her with sad eyes, Naruto's death had hit her the hardest out of the team, his last words had completely changed her, but for better or for worse was the question, thinking she needed comfort he moved to hug her, but Sakura just pushed him away

"Sasuke don't… I know it was just for comfort, but I don't feel that way about you anymore" she told him

"Are we at least still friends?" Sasuke asked a little worried that she didn't see them as friends anymore

She turned to him with tears still in her eyes and a sad smile "Of course we are Sasuke"

Sasuke smiled in relief that she still considered him her friend and that she stopped using the –kun suffix in his name

"WHAT?!" yelled the voice of the Hokage Tsunade then suddenly a desk was thrown right through the wall and was falling down straight towards Sasuke and Sakura

By instinct Sasuke pushed Sakura and himself out of the way before it slammed down into the ground breaking apart

"Sasuke get off" Sakura pushed him off "I'm a kunoichi remember I could've dodge that on my own"

"I know that Sakura, but I promised Naruto that I would protect you and I intend to keep the promise I made to my brother" Sasuke said with seriousness in his voice

Sakura just smiled that Sasuke was determined to honor Naruto's last request, but that doesn't mean she's going to keep being useless "Then I'll live my life as he asked as well, I'm going to live like a true kunoichi" she then thrust her fist and shouted "Believe It!"

Sasuke smiled at his friend happy she's going to honor his brother's last wish for her 'Thank you Sakura'

**Inside the Hokage Tower**

Tsunade was a mess she on her knees as she just kept on crying "It's all my fault" she said "I should have never given your team that mission"

"Lady Hokage no one is to blame" Kakashi said trying to comfort her with his words, but then Tsunade slammed him into the wall gripping his collar

"SHUT UP IT IS MY FAULT, I DID THIS!"

"ENOUGH!" Kakashi raised his voice surprising her "Lady Tsunade I apologize for raising my voice, but Naruto died saving his comrades like a true shinobi and he wouldn't want you to feel self-hatred for yourself just because of a decision he chose to do that anyone else would have done, including you"

Tsunade just released Kakashi and fell to her knees again "Your right" she sobbed "Your absolutely right Kakashi… it's just… it's just…" Tsunade just continued to cry mourning for her favorite knucklehead

Kakashi turned to see Shizune on the office couch crying in her hands uncontrollably, he walked over to the couch, sat beside her and put his arm around her shoulder comforting her

"I m-m-miss him so much" she cried out

"We all do" Kakashi told her

Shizune then hugged Kakashi and cried into his chest which he allowed

"Hey what's going on?"

Kakashi looked at the hole in the office to find Jiraiya there "Jiraiya-sama"

Jiraiya saw Tsunade on the floor crying so he went to her and put his hand on her shoulder "Tsunade what's wrong?"

Tsunade looked at her friend and former teammate with tearful eyes and told him what had happened

"WHAT?!"

**Naruto's funeral**

Everyone from Jounin, Chunin, ANBU, genin and those who knew Naruto were at his funeral in respects, except for the villagers and clan members they were there because they were forced to

"We have come here to mourn the loss of a valiant shinobi who gave his life for his comrades and his village, Naruto Uzumaki. He had played an important part in all our lives as a friend, shinobi and hero, he although some may disagree, livened up the village with his happy attitude and pranks" a few of the shinobi and villagers chuckled at this; annoying as he was Naruto somehow made life fun for everyone in the village

"Given the circumstance I believe it is best to explain something to all of you. 13 years ago on the night of October 10th, the Kyuubi had attacked our village. It had been said that the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze sacrificed his life to kill it, but what you of the younger generation have been taught by your parents and instructors at the academy, this is not the truth. You cannot kill a biju, so the Fourth had to seal the Kyuubi in an infant child, his own son." the Hokage said making the older generation go wide eyed

"Naruto Uzumaki, or as he was born Naruto Namikaze was the container or jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. He was a sacrifice to keep the Kyuubi from destroying everything we hold dear. I ask you to remember this as we grieve Naruto's passing." Everyone was stunned, the genin and Naruto's friends were stunned by what a terrible burden Naruto had to deal with his entire life and most of them just helped add on more pain for him to endure, but everyone was shocked most of all about the fact that Naruto was the son of the village's hero, the Fourth Hokage.

Sakura had cried more because she was one of the ones who had given Naruto such a hard time and all he ever did was love her and treat her like a princess.

"And there is something else I feel I have to tell" Tsunade started again gaining everyone's attention "For those who are older or the same age as myself I bet you all know that back during the time of the second great shinobi war that thanks to my old friend Jiraiya I was pregnant with a child"

Those who didn't know this were shocked

"And as you all know someone had put an assassination attempt on my child, that person who had assigned it was my former teammate turned missing-nin Orochimaru"

The shinobi and elder civilian's blood began to boil from hearing the traitors name and what he had done

"All of you had believed that my child was killed, but recently I had learned in the files of my old sensei Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, that my child had somehow survived and was found by a woman who worked in an old orphanage"

Everyone was surprised that the Senju heir had survived

"He grew up to be a great man, shinobi and hero, my son was originally named Nawaki Senju in honor of my younger brother, but you all knew him as Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze"

Everyone was once again utterly shocked, their hero the Fourth Hokage was the son of two of the three legendary Sannin and the heir to the Senju clan, which meant Naruto was a Senju as well making him royalty and the next in line to the throne, if he was still alive.

"Now that that's out of the way, would anyone like to say a few words?"

"I would" said Sasuke shocking everyone. A few coos of 'Sasuke-kun' came from some of the boisterous girls, but were quickly silenced by glares from Sasuke and Sakura.

Sasuke made his way passed the crowd onto the balcony wiping away the few tears that were shed from his eyes and faced the crowd.

"Naruto Uzumaki was my rival, my best friend and even though the same blood did not course through our veins I considered him my brother. Throughout the Academy you all knew him as the 'dead-last'. He earned the title shinobi through hard work and determination. He knew exactly what it meant to be a shinobi. During our mission, myself along with Sakura, Naruto and a captured girl we had found were dashing through a cavern that was caving in and erupting with lava and flames, the left side of Naruto's body was severely burned by an erupting plume of fire and yet with what little strength he had he had pushed the rest of us out of the way from being crushed by a boulder, saving us in the process, but sealing his own fate as well. I ask that we all remember Naruto for who he was; a great shinobi, and a better friend" Sasuke had then stepped down and went to join Sakura within the crowd

Naruto's final moments had shocked and inspired his friends, colleagues and the entire village. They all bowed their heads in respect for the fallen hero, doing exactly what the Uchiha asked them to do. They no longer saw him as an annoying, no talent prankster or the demon child. He lived and died as a true shinobi of the Leaf.

After the moment of silence, a small group of musicians began play melancholic music as Naruto's coffin was lowered into the earth. His friends, sensei, senpais, grandparents, and even some of the ANBU who watched him as a child tossed white incarnation flowers into his grave in respect. A few moments later the casket was completely covered in earth.

All the villagers and shinobi then began walking back home with tears running down many of their faces. All who were left were Naruto's friends and then one by one they left leaving only Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata and Naruto's grandparents.

Hinata was crying so much with the regret of never telling him how she felt

"I guess he was really important to you"

Hinata looked to her left see Sasuke looking at her "Y-yes" she answered him "H-he always i-inspired m-me t-to beli-ieve in m-myself, b-but n-now t-that h-he's g-gone…"

"Hinata" Hinata looked at Sasuke "If you truly do care for Naruto, then honor him by believing in yourself"

"B-but I-I don't k-know h-how" she then felt Sasuke put his hand on her shoulder

"Then I'll help you, along with the rest of the rookie genin, you have my word" he told her with a smile no less

Hinata looked at Sasuke in a whole new light "T-thank you Sasuke-kun"

"I'll walk you home" he offered her which she took and the two left together to the Hyuuga compound leaving Sakura, Tsunade and Jiraiya left

Sakura looked down at Naruto's grave "I'm so sorry" she whispered "I have a feeling you already forgave me, but I still wanted to tell you… I never knew what you saw in me, but to tell the truth, when Sasuke told me that you saved me from Gaara, I saw you in a whole new light, you were still a baka, but you were the most courageous and sweetest baka I've ever known and I actually looked up to you, even though I clearly didn't show it… I don't think this'll make any kind of difference now, but I just wanted to tell you… I love you… I love you and I always will… I just wish I could have told you it while you were still alive, that's my biggest regret and I'll have to live with it my entire life… thank you for loving me Naruto-kun" she finished with fresh tears leaving her face. She then turned to Tsunade and bowed her head "I'm sorry about all of this Tsunade-sama, I just wish I was stronger so that maybe" she then felt Tsunad put her hand on her shoulder making her look up to see Tsunade have an understanding motherly smile.

"Sakura don't blame yourself, Naruto gave his life for you, I wish he was here as well and I miss him so much, but I am proud of what he did and I'll always be glad that I got to meet him before it happened" Sakura nodded her head understandingly "And if you want to really become stronger then meet me tomorrow in my office"

Sakura's eyes widended "Y-you mean…" she got a nod from the Hokage in response "Thank you Lady Hokage… I promise I won't let you or Naruto down"

"I know you won't Sakura, you're a good girl and you're just like her"

"Who?"

"Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's mother, I know that just like her you'll become an amazing kunoichi"

Sakura smiled and bowed her head again before saying her goodbyes to both the sannin and trekked back home leaving Tsunade and Jiraiya

"I shouldn't have given them that damn mission" Tsunade said with sorrow

"Stop beating yourself up, Naruto and Minato wouldn't have wanted you to be this way" Jiraiya told her

"I know, but I just can't help myself" covered her mouth then cried fresh tears "I just miss them both so much"

Jiraiya put his arm around Tsunade "Tsunade… I promise I'll always be by your side, no matter what"

Tsunade hugged Jiraiya who hugged her back and cried into his chest "Thank you Jiraiya"

"Anytime Hime" he said holding her with love and affection

**At Sakura's home**

Sakura walked into her home and took her sandals off

"Sakura" Sakura heard her mother Mebuki call her name "I'm making your favorite tonight"

"Thanks mom… but I'm just really tired… I just want to go to bed" she told her mother

"Are you sure?" her mother asked

"Yes ma'am"

"Alright my little blossom" Mebuki hugged her only daughter "Your father and I will always be here for you"

"I know… I love you mom" Sakura said hugging her mother back

"I love you too Sakura"

Sakura then separated from her mother and headed straight to her room

"I hope she'll be alright" said Sakura's father Kizashi walking next to his wife placing his arm around her

"I hope so Kizashi, I really do"

Sakura got undressed and sat on her bed, as she looked to her nightstand she saw her picture of Team 7. Grabbing the picture she opened the cabinet of her nightstand taking out a red marker, she uncapped it and made a heart around her and Naruto and then held the picture "I love you Naruto" she said one last time before she lied down and cried herself to sleep

**The Next Morning at training ground 7**

Sasuke waited for his sensei and teammate to show up while he looked into the water traveling underneath the bridge he stood on remembering the good old days when Naruto was still around 'It just won't be the same without you brother'

"Glad to see you're still here"

Sasuke looked to his right to see his sensei "Kakashi-sensei? I'm surprise you got here before Sakura"

"Right, about that, you see Lady Hokage had informed me that she'll be training Sakura from now on, which means from here on out we'll be training one on one" Kakashi explained to his student

"So Team 7 is over?" Sasuke asked

"Team 7 is temporarily disband for now, but we will get back together someday, but until then I'll be teaching you along with a colleague of mine"

"Who?"

"Anko Mitarashi, the only other person in the village who has the curse mark and utilized it, but for today I will be teaching you"

"Then can I make a suggestion?"

Kakashi nodded in response

Sasuke went to end of the bridge grabbing a sheathed katana "I wish to learn kenjutsu"

"Alright then" Kakashi nodded

'Just you watch Naruto, I'm going to become stronger to protect Sakura and honor your memory'

**At the Hokage Tower**

Sakura was in front of the office doors and then knocked on them

"Come in" ordered Tsunade

Sakura entered the room and bowed in respect

"Good to see you Sakura" Tsunade stood up from her seat "I hope you're prepared, because for the next three years I'm going to give you the most intense training you'll ever experience"

"Hai Lady Hokage" Sakura said with much determination making Tsunade smile 'Just watch me Naruto, I'm going to get stronger and live up to your memory, Believe It!'

**At An Unknown Location**

Lying on a bed was Naruto with the left side of his body bandaged still breathing and very well alive

The man with the orange spiral mask stood with his arms crossed in the room not taking his eye of the boy

"How is he doing?"

The masked man looked to his right to see a woman with long brunette hair wearing the same cloak as him and wore a with a white mask that had two purple rectangle marks one on each cheek area of the mask and the eye holes were in the shape of sideways triangles

"Well he still hasn't woken up yet, but he's still breathing, no doubt the Kyuubi is helping in his recovery" the orange masked man said

"The poor child" the masked woman said with so much concern

"This feels weird" the masked man said making the woman tilt her head in confusion "I was in the same position like him years ago, the only difference is I'm not going to turn him into what _he _made me into" the woman then hugged him which he gladly returned

"Come on, let's let him rest"

The masked man nodded in response before following her into the next room

Naruto lied there on the bed breathing calmly and the suddenly he slowly cracked his eyes open and said "Where am I?"

End of Chapter 1

Well that's it for this chapter, hope you enjoyed it and I can't wait to write the next chapter

Takeshi1225 out


	2. The start of a new life

Akatsuki no Naruto

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**Chapter 2: The Akatsuki, Wave, and the Unexpected Meeting**

Naruto was wide awake and saw that he was in what looked like a bedroom. He looked down at his body to see the left half of his body was covered in bandages 'What The Hell?!'

"**I see you're awake"**

"Kurama?" Naruto whispered

"**Naruto listen to me carefully, before you fell unconscious Madara Uchiha had appeared in the cavern"**

"Madara Uchiha? I think I heard that name somewhere before"

"**He's the man who used me as a tool to help him fight the First Hokage"**

"How did he do that?"

"**With that damn sharingan of his" **Kurama answered **"The sharingan has the ability to take control of one's mind, but an advanced one used by a powerful member of the Uchiha clan can take over the mind of a Biju, including me, in fact he's the one that made me attack you're village"**

Naruto's eyes widened "That son of a bitch" said with anger, suddenly Naruto heard what sounded like a record player being scratched and then a cheerful male voice "Um, where are we anyway?"

"**I don't know, but I think it's best we don't stay any longer to find out"**

Naruto then tried to get up, but the bandages were becoming a bit of a nuisance, so using his teeth and a little of Kurama's chakra that he allowed Naruto to use, he ripped off the bandages to reveal the left side of his body. Naruto's eyes widened at the sight, his left side had burn scars on it and it looked crushed "M-my body"

"**I'm sorry kit, I tried the best I could, but your body was to damaged leaving still looking crushed and of course the burn scars"**

'At least you tried… thank you Kurama'

The nine tailed Biju king grunted in response

Naruto slowly got out of bed still feeling pain in his left side, he then started walking and made it to the room where the music was coming from to see something he thought was unusual

He saw a man and a woman dancing to the music, which was apparently a love song, in the middle of the room with looks happiness on evident their faces.

The man had short, spikey black hair, but the most noticeable thing about him was that his right side looked crushed just like Naruto's left side except his side was more severe on the face area while only Naruto's forehead, chin and the bottom of his lip was crushed and the man doesn't have any burn scars like Naruto does.

The woman who was giggling had peaceful brown eyes, two purple rectangular tattoos on her cheeks, one on each side and long brunette hair that had a style that resembled what Sakura's hair used to look like before the second stage of the Chunin exams

'Sakura!' Naruto just realized that he had to get back to Konoha. Naruto saw what looked like the front door and ran to it getting the attention of the couple

"Wait!" the man cried

Naruto just ignored him, but he also failed to notice the sandals on the floor that he tripped on making him fall, and as he landed hard on the floor Naruto cried out in pain as he felt excruciating pain from his scared left side

The man stopped the record as the two ran over to him, helping him up. They took him back to the room and set him back down on the bed

"Who are you guys?" Naruto asked

"We're Shinigami" the man joked, but Naruto didn't take it as one

Naruto screamed in terror and started crying anime tears "PLEASE DON'T GUT OUT MY SOUL AND CUT IT TO RIBBODS, PLEASE FORGIVE ME!"

The woman then glared at the man and smacked him in the back of the head "See what you did, you've completely frightened the boy"

"I didn't know he was going to take me seriously" the man defended himself

The woman then placed a warm comforting hand on Naruto's shoulder getting his attention "Naruto it's alright, we're not Shinigami and we're not going to hurt you, you have my word" she told him giving him a motherly smile

Naruto may not know this woman, but her words made him feel safe, something he never even felt in his own village, Naruto nodded his head in response "Miss, do you think I could go home now?"

"That's the thing kid" the man started "We can't let you go home. At least not yet anyway. You'll understand soon enough. I have some people I'd like you to meet and a chance I'd like to give you, but for now you have to rest, you're not at full strength yet."

"But I Have To-"

The woman then pushed Naruto back into bed "Rest now Naruto-kun. Seriously, how are you going to become Hokage if you don't get your strength back?"

Naruto's eyes widened 'How do they know about my dream?! Who the hell are these people?!'

Seeing his expression, the man chuckled "We've been watching you for quite some time now and as creepy as that be, we had a good reason. As soon as you're fully healthy again, we'll explain everything. Sleep."

Naruto then slowly closed his eyes letting the darkness take over and soon enough he was asleep.

**Later**

Naruto opened his eyes, as he rose from the bed he heard some noise in the other room. After rubbing his eyes from the tiredness Naruto decided to walk into the next room, but realized he was in his underwear. He then realized that there was a cloak on his bed that had red clouds on it, he grabbed it, slipped it on and noticed that it was a perfect fit and that it was insanely warm and comfortable 'Oh yeah, now this is what all clothing should feel like… huh, I think I've seen this before somewhere, 'ttebayo' Naruto then made his way to the other room to see the man and the woman with a red haired man with purple rippled pattern eyes and two faces that he never thought he would see here 'Itachi and Fish Face?! What The Hell Are They Doing Here?!' Naruto was about to go back into the other room when the floorboard creaked underneath his foot making the other's look in his direction making him gulp 'I am so dead'

"Ah Naruto-kun you're up, here" the brunette woman brought him some ramen, which he was hesitant to take "Now go on, it won't bite"

Seeing that the woman wasn't going to do anything to him he quickly grabbed the bowl of ramen and inhaled it in just two seconds

'Damn, the kids got an appetite' Kisame thought as he saw the kid down that mean quicker than whale shark sucking up krill

After finishing the bowl Naruto sighed in ecstasy 'Oh… my… Kami… that was better than Ichiraku's ramen… is she… the Goddess of Ramen… I knew she had to be real'

"**You realize how retarded you sound" **Kurama said with a sweat drop expression

"Alright Naruto, I'm betting you want an explanation for everything?" the black haired man said getting a nod from Naruto

"Well first off, our names. My name is Obito Uchiha. This is my lovely girlfriend, and soon to be wife, Rin" he introduced himself and the brunette woman. Rin smiled at Naruto that made him feel warm and safe.

"You said your name was Uchiha… but I thought he massacred all of you" Naruto said pointing at Itachi "And speaking of him, why is he here along with fish face?!"

Obito chuckled at hearing Kisame being called fish face, which just pissed of the shark man even more "I'm guessing you're on thin ice with them because of that time back at the hotel"

"You Knew About That?!" Naruto exclaimed

"They were sent there to test your skills, but of course in order to do that they had to be a bit intimidating, I hope you understand"

"I guess" Naruto said still on guard just in case

"And finally this man here with the red hair and creepy eyes is Nagato, he is a part of the Uzumaki clan like you, he's your distant cousin" Naruto's eyes widened as he looked at the man with shock. Nagato had a slight smile as he walked towards Naruto and extended his hand. Naruto's hand was trembling as he took it and shook Nagato's hand.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Naruto" Nagato said with a small smile

Naruto bowed a little smiling happily before wiping a tear from his eye 'He's my cousin… I don't believe it, I actually have a living relative'

"Now I bet you're wondering what you're doing here" said Obito

"Yeah actually I am, I mean I was being crushed by a rock and then suddenly out of nowhere my guardian angel came and saved me"

"Aw~ that's so cute. He thinks of you as his own guardian angel Obito" Rin said making the scared Uchiha blushed

"You saved me? But why?" Naruto asked staring at the man who saved him

"Well you see Naruto, we all had our eyes on you for some time now and we were impressed by your abilities and actions that we wish for you to join our organization" Obito explained making Naruto raise his eyebrow

"Organization?"

"Yes. It's called the Akatsuki. We would greatly benefit from your skills and you're… err… 'roommate'" Obito said pointing to Naruto's stomach

"**Bite Me Asshole!"** Kurama yelled in Naruto's head

'So they know about you… and they don't care?'

"**If I was in that room right now I'd make them care"**

Noticing his behavior, Rin place a hand on Naruto's shoulder "Naruto-kun, no, we do care that the Kyuubi is within you, but not for the reasons you may think. We hold no grudge against you. The reason the Kyuubi is in you is partly our fault… but we see it as a gift. Think about it; how powerful would you be if you harnessed it's power?"

"That does sound good by your perspective, but I don't want to see Kurama as nothing but just a mere soulless tool, I already made peace with him and I only want to use his power when I rightfully deserve his trust in using it"

Everyone, including Kurama, had their eyes widened at what Naruto said

'He made peace with the Kyuubi? And he knows it's name?' Nagato thought, then a small smile formed on his face 'He has to be the one'

"Wait a minute" Naruto just realized "What Do Mean It's Partly Your Fault?!"

Obito had a frown on his face "Naruto… I'm the reason the Kyuubi is within you. I set it loose on the village. During that time, I was being controlled and manipulated by an evil man. How would you feel if you lost the one you love right in front of your eyes?"

Naruto was about ready to beat the crap out of Obito, but the last part he said made him paused 'How would I feel if… Sakura-chan died?' Naruto looked down at the floor was hollow dark eyes "I… wouldn't know what to do with myself. I would probably just go insane." Naruto said darkly.

Obito nodded, and Rin walked up to him and have him a hug "That happened to me, and the man took advantage of my emotional status at the time. I truly am sorry for causing you this pain, Naruto. I hope you can forgive me someday…" Obito said sadly.

Naruto frowned, but he nodded.

Obito smiled a little, before giving Nagato a glance 'Thank you Nagato. Without you bringing Rin back to me, Kami only knows where I would be right now'

"I can understand where you're coming from. The truth is I don't hate the fact that Kurama is within me, in fact I'm actually happy because we're friends now, the only down side about being his jinchuriki was that the villagers treated me like a disease and a monster, but that was all their doing not yours, what I'm trying to say is… I forgive you" Naruto said, surprising everyone by his genuine response. "So… what is the 'Akatsuki' anyway?" Naruto asked very skeptically, changing the subject.

Obito sighed and looked straight at Naruto "Naruto… despite what you may think, this world, and the shinobi system that governs it, is insanely corrupted. Wars fought for no viable reason and the nations have never known peace. The cause of this corruption is a multitude of things; greedy politicians looking to increase their finances, evil manipulators working from the dark to influence events, insane leaders that come in to power."

"Like some whack job killing his own brother just to gain his high position" Naruto said remembering the events of the Land of Snow

"Exactly… I don't know how we aren't in a constant state of total war" Obito said sadly.

Naruto grimaced; he knew things were bad in some places, but not around the world; he never really paid attention in class, so world events were fairly unknown to him, but he highly doubted that the academy would teach stuff like that, the students probably would have dropped out in a heartbeat if they knew what they'd have to deal with crap like that.

Itachi then spoke "Naruto-kun, you're extremely lucky. In Konoha there is an elder named Danzo. Have you heard of him?" he asked.

Naruto shook his head.

"Danzo is the leader of a faction of ANBU known as ROOT. He is one of the most corrupted and evil individuals I have ever known. We did some research; and he intended to put you into the ROOT program to use you, and Kyuubi, as a weapon of war." Itachi said grimly. Naruto paled and winced a little at the terminology "We've also learned that he had assisted Orochimaru into the village during the Chunin exams and with the invasion in hopes of ending the Third's life so he may take the mantle as Hokage"

Naruto's eye widened at the news 'He's the reason why Orochi-teme gave Sasuke the curse mark and why old man Third died?!' Naruto clenched his fists and gritted his teeth 'When I get my hands on him, I'll turn him into Kurama's new chew toy' Kurama chuckled at the chew toy part

"He also manipulated me into massacring my clan, which is an event I'm sure you are aware of. I had a choice between my clan and my village. I will explain in detail to you later" said Itachi. Naruto was always a judge of good character, just by looking into their eyes. Now that he had a chance to get a good look at Itachi's, he could see in his eyes there laid great sadness, guilt and a hint of anger. He knew he wasn't lying 'He's actually a good guy, I can tell'

"**I guess all Uchihas aren't so bad" **said Kurama

"This is why we can't allow you to return to the village; at least not yet. If you were to return, without an official status of being alive and a Genin, Danzo would surely swoop in at first chance to bring you into his ranks. Tou would lose your freedom; and would be locked up like an animal until he wanted to use you." Obito stated

'So this old fart had this planned for me since I was a kid? Danzo, you just made my list'

"The Akatsuki is a group of A to S-ranked missing-nin dedicated to peace; we are working from the shadows, eliminating the corruption from this world one man at a time, We also offer our services as mercenaries from time to time; though we only send our lower-ranked members on those missions." Said Obito

Naruto felt inspired by that goal 'Peace… that's what Ero-sennin said he wished for this world… bringing peace is what a Hokage does, right? To bring peace to the village, and the world?'

"Naruto, my understanding is that you wish to become Hokage?" Nagato said, as if he read the blonde's mind. Naruto nodded. "That's a very admirable goal; and we will help you attain it in the future. If one of our members gains a position such as that, our influence will expand significantly."

Naruto was at a loss for words for a moment before he grinned widely. No one had offered to help him become Hokage. He liked these guys, and knew that they weren't trying to manipulate him like that guy Danzo would.

"So will you join us?" Obito asked

"Hell Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed with a huge grin plastered on his face, making everyone, including Itachi, to smile.

Nagato smirked at his young cousin 'Jiraiya-sensei… I believe Naruto is the Child of Prophecy. He will bring peace to the shinobi world. There's no doubt in my mind.'

"So what now?!" Naruto asked getting excited to start becoming a member

"Well first you tell us what are your skills" Obito said

"Oh, well, I have a lot of chakra. And I'm pretty good with the **Kage Bushin**. My other talents are subpar, though I do pride myself in being good at stealth and evasion; whenever I would pull pranks in the village, it would take a whole squad of Chunin or a couple ANBU members to get me, but it took them a while." He said wearing a smug grin.

"Did Bakakashi teach you any of those skills?" Obito asked

Naruto burst out laughing "Bakakashi, good one" Obito smiled already liking this kid "And no he didn't, all he taught me was how to climb a tree and something that had to do with a leaf; I know I said he was a good teacher the last time I saw him, but he wasn't really that good at teaching"

'There's a surprise' Obito thought sarcastically "So you didn't even have proper training and you're that skillful? Impressive. I knew that the academy instructors were rather biased against you Naruto. The fact that you could evade ANBU members proves that you do have strong talents in stealth… I think I know what to do with you." Obito said smirking. Naruto looked at him with anticipation.

"How would you feel about being an assassin? It fits your style perfectly, plus with your enormous chakra reserves, you can easily switch to straight combat if need be."

Naruto froze 'An assassin? I've never thought about being one… but could I take a life? That's what shinobi are made to do… kill.'

"**Look on the bright side kit; you'd be making the world a better place taking out all the trash in this world" **Kurama tried calming Naruto's nerves

'Yeah, I would. Thanks Kurama' Naruto thanked his friend

"**No problem" **Kurama smirked

"Alright. I'll give it a shot" Nsruto said smiling a bit.

Obito grinned and ruffled his hair "Then let's get to work, but first I want you to meet the rest of the group."

/

The six walked out of the house, into the woods. Naruto actually felt a calm peace wash over him in the secluded hideout; he felt as if nothing could harm him here.

They soon made it to the side of a mountain that had giant metal doors

"Please tell me there's no lava behind that door" said Naruto

"Trust me Naruto, you're safe here" said Nagato as he open the doors

The four walked in and were greeted with a large underground outpost. It was stocked with weapons, supplies and scrolls of every jutsu you could imagine.

The walked down a hallway and entered a large cavern, where the rest of the members were

"Heh, looks like the kid's still breathing!" a man with long, slicked back silver hair exclaimed. He had his cloak zipped down a bit, revealing his bare chestand a strange pendant around his neck.

"Everyone… meet Naruto Uzumaki, the Kyuubi Jinchuriki" Obito introduced the young blonde. Naruto gave a small wave and stepped forward.

The man suddenly appeared in front of Naruto freaking him out a bit, then grabbed his hand and started shaking it "Sup, names Hidan. It's good to see your still part of the living… for now." he said freaking Naruto out

"That's enough Hidan, we're trying to show him we mean no harm remember?" said a masked man with green eyes with a hoarse voice

"Yeah, yeah, I remember, just trying to have a little fun is all" Hidan said letting go of Naruto's hand

The masked man went up to him and bowed a bit "My name is Kakuzu, and I am the treasurer of the Akatsuki, it is nice to meet you. I look forward to working with you." Kakuzu said. Naruto smiled and nodded at him.

A young red haired boy walked up to Naruto with a smile and offered his hand towards Naruto "My name's Sasori. I, too, look forward to working with you; your growth will be interesting to watch." He said in a voice that didn't match his age. Naruto shook his hand, noting that it felt almost like plastic, or ceramic.

An attractive, blue haired woman smiled gently at him. She had a piercing in her bottom lip. She affectionately kissed his forehead, causing him to blush. "My name is Konan, Naruto-kun. I hope we can be the best of friends" she said sweetly. Naruto grinned and scratched the back of his head.

A man with blonde hair, not unlike his own, that was in a style similar to Ino's; stepped forward outstretching his hand. Naruto gripped his hand, but yelped and drew it back when he felt something slick graze his palm. Everyone laughed, and the blonde was chuckling. Naruto gagged when he saw that his hand had a _mouth_ on it, and it was grinning at him.

"Gets them every time. My name's Deidara. I'm glad you're on our side, Naruto." He said

Naruto nodded 'I like that guy; he's a bit of a prankster'

"**Another blonde baka prankster; the world is doomed" **Kurama said

'That standup comedy routine of yours is really paying off, I can tell from the awe of silence from your audience'

"**Up yours"**

"And finally, our leader, Yahiko." Obito said gesturing to an orange, spikey haired man, who looked similar to Narurto. Naruto bowed in respect, before grinning.

"I'm glad you're alive, Naruto-san. It'll be nice having you here. In myopinion, it's getting a bit dull." He said jokingly, earning an elbow to the side by Konan and an annoyed sigh from Nagato, but all Yahiko did was grin like a goof. Naruto smiled at seeing the exchange, it reminded him so much of Team 7.

"It's, uh, nice to meet you all!" Naruto said awkwardly. He was distraught; never in his has he met so many people who not only were kind to him, but looked genuinely happy to see him.

"Just know, Naruto, that you have a home here. We are all unique in our own ways. A jinchuriki isn't something we haven't encountered before, either." Yahiko said making Naruto genuinely smile.

"Thanks… you have no idea what that means to me." He said seriously "But I don't know how much help I can be because of this" Naruto pulled down his left sleeve to show the rest of his crushed side and the burn scars, making Yahiko's eyes widen a bit, Deidara and Konan flinch and Hidan grin wickedly.

"Damn, the kid looks worse than Obito" Deidara whispered getting a glare from Obito who heard and a punch from Konan "Ow!"

"Even with Kurama's help, my left side is still useless for fighting" Naruto said with a sad look on his face, feeling that his stay was over as it had just begun

"Let me see that" Obito said grabbing Naruto's arm and examining it

"Who's Kurama? Is it the Kyuubi?" Yahiko asked Nagato

"Yes. Apparently in his 'final moments', Naruto made peace with the Kyuubi; earning it's trust and learned it's true name." Nagato told his best friend

"Do think that he's the one Jiraiya sensei was speaking of?" Yahiko asked with a smirk on his face

Nagato nodded in response "Without a doubt"

"Yep… that arm's definitely banged up like mine used to be" Obito said making Naruto frown deeper "But luckily I have just the thing that'll make that thing brand new… sort of"

Naruto looked up at Obito with his head tilted to the side in confusion

/

"Excellent, Naruto! Again!" Obito yelled smiling.

Naruto then rushed at him again. Naruto sent quick strikes at Obito; he delivered chops, punches, and kicks.

Obito just kept smiling as he dodged Naruto's attacks. He was proud that in just a month, Naruto had progressed so much, his taijtsu was impressive, he has better control over his chakra, he was astounding with his new arsenal of jutsu, and the kid really knew how to use a knife. He was steadily improving every day. Though Obito held back from using his space-time Ninjutsu to avoid hits, Naruto felt pride in his progress. He was, without a doubt, way stronger than he used to be.

Naruto rushed at Obito, and threw a punch. The Uchiha dodged, ducking under the blonde and swept his leg out. Naruto hopped up, and chopped with his free hand at Obito's neck.

The Uchiha blocked the attack with his elbow "Nice move, but" Obito then swiftly palmed Naruto in the face making him poof away, revealing him to be a **Kage Bushin**; and turned and grabbed the real Naruto's wrist, saving him from getting paralyzed "You're going to have to do better than that"

Naruto grin as a pair of hands grabbed Obito's feet as a bunch of Naruto's jumped into the air with **Rasengans** in their hands "I Win Obito!"

"Not yet" Obito lifted Naruto up and threw him straight at the **Rasengan** ready clones

"Oh crap" Naruto crossed his fingers together and screamed "Kai!" making the clones dispel, but it was far from over as Obito appeared right in front of Naruto with his fist cocked back.

Naruto crossed his arms into an X-block (As I like to call it) and felt the force of Obito's punch that sent him crashing down into the ground. Groaning Naruto got back up in time to block a chop from Obito, then jumped back getting some distance from the Uchiha.

"Not bad Naruto. I see that left arm of yours is doing well." Obito said with a smirk

"Yeah, it sure is; and it's going to be the arm that's going to land it's fist right on your face." Naruto said with a grin

"Maybe… when you're fifty." Obito said laughing making Naruto glare his mentor.

"Alright you two that's enough" the two heard Rin call out

"Aw man, I wanted to keep on going 'ttebayo" Naruto said with a pout

"Well we all don't have the stamina you possess kid. Now come on." Obito said as he and Naruto walked back to Rin who smiled at them

"Oh Rin, thank goodness you called for us, Naruto landed a hit right at the crick of my neck." Said Obito rubbing his neck

"No I didn't." Naruto said before Obito palmed the top of his head making it sore

"It's excruciating. I think I really need some healing." Obito said blushing ignoring the glare Naruto gave him

Rin just shook her head at Obito's little lie "Sit down" she ordered with a sweet smile on her face

Obito sat on the ground and sighed in ecstasy "Ah, Rin your healing touch is so good~"

Naruto made a vomiting noise at hearing this

"You may be disgusted now, but when you meet a beautiful woman like Rin with a healing touch, you'll think otherwise" Obito said "But I'm proud of you today Naruto; you're really shaping up to be a great shinobi"

Naruto blushed with embarrassment and rubbed the back of his head "Ah, it was nothing, just learning from the best."

"I am the best." Obito laughed

"You two have such big heads." Rin giggled

"Anyway, Naruto, I think it's time I tell you who your parents are." Obito said with a serious look

"M-my parents?"

Obito nodded and sighed. "Naruto… you are the son of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and Kushina Uzumaki." He stated.

Naruto felt the air leave his lungs. The revelation that his idol, the one that he aspired to be, was his father shook him down to his core. Tears welled up in his eyes, but he refused to shed tears. For some reason, it didn't quick shock him as he thought it would.

"I… I always had this feeling that we were connected, y'know? I mean, we look almost identical…" Naruto said, frowning.

Rin moved from Obito and gave Naruto a small hug. Naruto smiled. Rin was like the mother he never had, and Obito taught him everything he should know, as a father would.

"But there's more" Obito said getting Naruto's intention "Apparently thanks to an old friend of mine doing some research, he learned that apparently Minato sensei was the long lost heir to the Senju heir"

"Wait… you mean…"

"Naruto, you are also the grandson of Tsunade Senju and her lover Jiraiya." Obito told the young blond. Naruto's eyes widened in shock.

'Baa-chan… really is my baa-chan… and Ero-sennin is my jiji?!'

"**Didn't see that coming" **Kurama said surprised a bit at the news

"I know this is a lot to take in and I bet this makes you desire to go back to Konoha even more"

"It does… but my place is here with you guys." Naruto said making Obito and Rin smile "So since I'm a Senju… does that mean…"

"That you'll be able to use Wood style? Yes it does, especially with the cells I injected into your body." Obito said. Naruto looked at his left arm.

"The cells of the First, I mean, great, great grandpa Hashi?" Naruto said he kept staring at his arm.

"Yes. With the cells of your ancestor in your body, it will no doubt react with your blood and awaken your kekkei genkai. With the proper training, you'll be able to become as skilled as the First; probably even better." Obito said with a smile.

"But who's going to teach me to use Wood jutsu?" Naruto asked.

"I'm afraid you're on your own for that. The only other Wood style user is in Konoha." Obito told the Senju child.

"There's another Senju?" Naruto asked with surprise.

"Not exactly; I'll explain later." Obito said. Naruto felt like meeting this other Wood user; maybe when he finally returns to Konoha he might be able to meet this person and probably train with him or her.

"Naruto, we think it's time for you to learn Minato sensei's other jutsu." Rin said. Naruto raised his eyebrow. "His other jutsu?"

Obito chuckled a bit. "Man, you really _didn't_ pay attention in class, did you?" He said, clearly amused. Naruto blushed out of embarrassment and shook his head.

"Well you see, other than the **Rasengan**; Minato sensei created an advanced version of the Second Hokage's justu called, the **Hiraishin**."

The name then clicked into his head; he has heard of it before. The Hirashin was his father's utility jutsu. It allowed Minato to teleport instantly to wherever a seal for the technique was; either via his famous pronged kunai, or personally placed seal.

"While he was still alive, Minato sensei somehow locked the **Hiraishin** into the Namikaze, or should I say Senju bloodline; so now, you're the only living person who can use it."

Naruto grinned. "You're in luck; I still happen to have one of his kunai lying around. I want you to copy the seal down over and over again until you can memorize it, and then I'll teach you how to place it using only your palm. Then, you'll learn how to awaken the jutsu within you; it's not something I can teach."

Naruto nodded enthusiastically. Suddenly Naruto's stomach then growled.

"Looks like all that training was hungry work, huh Naruto-kun?" Rin said giggling, making Naruto blush "Come on, I'll make you some lunch." Naruto smiled giving her a nod as he followed Rin and Obito back home.

'Sakura-chan… I wonder how she's doing. I hope she's at least happy'

"**I don't think she is."**Kurama said

'Why's that?' Naruto asked confused as to why the fox disagrees

"**Remember what she said to you back at the volcano. She said that she couldn't live her life without you." ** Kurama reminded his host. Naruto had a frown on his face, but it was then replaced with a confident look.

'Sakura-chan is a strong kunoichi. She never listened to anyone when they said she was useless, which she isn't. She's alright, I just know it; I believe in her, Believe It!' Kurama smiled at his jinchuriki's words.

'**You really have too much faith in her.' **Kurama thought.

'I hope she's happy. Same with Sasuke and Kakashi sensei. Don't worry guys. I'll be home soon.

/

A year had passed since Naruto's 'death'.

He was now a deadly in Taijutsu; he had learned different styles of Taijutsu, one of his favorites was what he called his 'pressure point' style, it emphasized hitting the opponents pressure points and weak spots; in a sense, a more physical and wounding version of the Hyuuga's Taijutsu. It specialized in feigning hits, and using the windows of opportunity to get a good strike in to disable the enemy. It was completely his own, and was augmented by his natural brutality and randomness to his attacks.

Naruto was now able to use the Rasengan without the help of a clone, which helped in saving his chakra; he worked tirelessly on perfecting it, and was now adding his own Wind element to the jutsu. He had, with some experimentation, learned that the **Kage Bushin **could be used to train in Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and other skills. He was using new found training method to create a complete Rasengan.

He also was adept in the **Hiraishin** **no jutsu**. He was the second coming of the Yellow Flash; his father's true legacy. Naruto had unlocked the jutsu easily. He was almost as deadly as his father once was, though he did need to improve on the timing, and long range teleportation drained him of chakra severely, due to his poor chakra control. It was a useful tool, but Naruto didn't use it unless he absolutely had to. He needed to perfect it before it became practical.

Naruto still longed for home, though the Akatsuki were now his family. They didn't scorn, yell or hit him; they truly cared about his well-being.

He and Nagato were as close as brothers. Naruto learned all he could about the Uzumaki clan from Nagato, who he himself knew very little. Naruto learned that it was a clan from the Whirlpool country; they were gifted with high chakra reserves, and elongated lifespans. He also learned that they were masters of Fuinjutsu, which would explain how his father and great, great, grandfather knew a thing or two about seals, because they were both married to Uzumaki women, which now that he thought about it was a pretty big coincidence for two Senjus from the same family tree to get together with two Uzumaki beauties. Anyway in the end the Uzumaki clan was killed off and their countrywas destroyed during a great war due to the strong prowess they possessed. And their strong ties to Konoha. As a sign of friendship and goodwill, their emblem was now a part of the Konoha shinobi uniforms.

As a result of his bond with Nagato, he became good friends with Kona and Yahiko, who were in the past, his teammates. He found Yahiko to be very good natured, and easy to get along with. Naruto was inspired by him; when he becomes Hokage, he would lead Konoha like Yahiko lead the Akatsuki. Konan was like a big sister to him; they playfully taunt and hit each other, but they were close nonetheless. He also did have a bit of a thing for her. It's complicated.

Naruto became even closer to Rin and Obito, who he had begun to see more and more like pseudo parents. He was particularly fond of Obito; the two had chatted about their Genin days, and found they had remarkable amount of traits in common, down to their unrequited loves of their female teammates.

The others, he rarely saw, and when he did see them, it was for short amounts of time. The Akatsuki were busy in the year Naruto had been training; Kakuzu and Hidan had been working tirelessly to gain funds for the group, and now they were well fed and had top notch equipment.

Deidara and Sasori, who had a hate-love relationship, were recruiting members along with Itachi and Kisame. The inner circle of the group was now full, thanks to Naruto's inclusion, and now they were searching for more fighters, specifically Jinchuriki and shinobi with bloodline limits. Naruto heard from Obito that they were negotiating with the Hachibi vessel, and the blonde was looking forward to meeting a fellow demon container.

Naruto had significantly calmed down over the year, becoming more quiet and analytical. Though his brash and exuberant personality was still present, the blonde knew when to be serious.

The 14 year old was currently sitting outside, his back to a tree, his cloak splayed over him like a blanket. He wore a high collar sleeveless black shirt that was zipped up a bit below his collar bone, black pants and boots. (Think of Cloud's outfit from FF VII: Advent Children, but without the black cloth covering his left arm and leg)

"Getting comfy I see." Naruto looked up to see Obito standing in front of him.

"Oh, hey Obito. What's up?" Naruto said looking at his mentor and surrogate father.

"Naruto, we have your first mission." Obito said. Naruto immediately sat up, put on his cloak and stood up with a determined look on his face "Come with me, I'll get you briefed and set up." Obito said. Obito led Naruto into the base, and into the weapons and briefing room. Obito started rummaging through the weapon stock.

"It's your first assassination mission; I believe you are prepared. Word is; the daimyo of the Land of Waves are beginning to re-instate Gatou's ideals into the country." Naruto clenched his fists tightly at the news "It's slowly becoming isolated; the bridge, which you were named after in honor of your efforts, is now in his control. The people are starving. There's another candidate for the position, but the present leader needs to be… eliminated." Obito said. Naruto tensed. 'So, back to The Land of Waves, eh? I sort of missed that place. It was a nice country. I wonder how Tazuna and Inari are doing.'

When Naruto heard the name of the bridge from the Akatsuki, he blushed from the kind gesture from the people and he felt pride.

Naruto was prepared to complete this mission. Naruto no longer had a problem with taking a life; he had dispatched a few bandits when he was on a run in the forest; they had attacked a family who were traveling along the main road. His first kill was a kunai to the throat. He felt remorse for it, but it didn't overwhelm him. Naruto felt that as long as they weren't innocent, and in his eyes 'deserved' death, he would not feel regret for ending another man's life.

Obito then pulled out two wrist straps. They had strange poles on them. He gave them to Naruto, who wrapped them around his wrists.

"Uh… what are these?" Naruto asked, looking up at Obito.

"Your new weapons. Flick your wrists out." He said. Naruto did so, and for each strap, a long, razor sharp blade extended out. Naruto noticed that the straps had a button that comfortably rested on his palms. He pressed them, and the blades retracted. Naruto grinned.

"Cool!" He exclaimed, constantly extending and retracting the blade. He was fascinated by them; they were literally undetectable, and were seemingly very sharp.

Those are hidden blades; they are easily concealed, and can pierce almost anything. Those will be your main weapons of disposal in assassination missions; they won't fair very well in straight forward combat, so if things get hairy, retract them and resort to your regular combat skills."

"Then could I also get a katana?" Naruto asked with hope in his eyes.

"What's with you and blades lately?" Obito asked, chuckling a bit.

"I don't know. I just got real into kenjutsu is all." Naruto said scratching the back of his head.

Obito just chuckled at how interested Naruto became in kenjutsu 'Kids ask for candy, he asks for blades.' Obito thought. Obito rummaged through the chest again and pulled out a trench knife "Here" Obito tossed the knife to Naruto. Naruto caught it and grinned.

"Thanks Obito." Naruto thanked his mentor. "So what sort of opposition am I going up against?"

"Nothing major; The Wave doesn't have any shinobi, as you know well. So probably a few thugs, maybe some samurai, and if you're unlucky enough, a merc-nin." The Uchiha said.

"Well then, I hope that I'll be the most unluckiest boy in the world." Naruto said with an antsy grin. Obito just shook his head, but still kept on smiling.

"We already set it up; you're going in as a mercenary for hire. You will have some back-up; we're sending in two members with you, they are very skilled in assassination and combat. Only the daimyo candidate knows what you're really doing there; he hired you after all. And I'm going to ask you this… during this mission, and all missions after it, conceal your identity. It's paramount that you being alive doesn't spread. When you return, I'm going to be teaching you an advanced transformation technique for long-term engagements. And also… the Hachibi vessel has agreed to join our ranks. He has full control over his tailed beast, and has agreed to train you in that department. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" Naruto said, playfully saluting. Obito grinned and ruffled his hair.

"Your partners will be waiting outside; they may be a pair of familiar faces."

/

After equipping his hidden blades, and stocking up on supplies and weaponry, Naruto was making his way outside, when a thought came to his head. 'Hey, Kurama?'

The nine tailed Bijuu king opened his crimson red slit eyes **"What is it kit?"**

'Well, I've been thinking; the whole world knows you as the Kyuubi, but I'm the only one, plus some members of the Akatsuki, who knows your real name.'

"**And?"**

'Well, if you have a real name, then what are the other bijuus real names?' Naruto asked curiously.

Kurama sighed **"I'll tell you later kit."**

'Why?' Naruto asked, wanting to know Kurama's siblings names

"**Because their names are pretty damn hard to remember, and unless you have a pen and some paper, I highly doubt that you'll be able to remember them in just one go."** Kurama explained

'Oh, okay… could I at least hear what Hachibi's name is?' Naruto asked, making the demon fox smile.

"**Gyuuki"** Kurama answered.

'Gyuuki, huh? That's a nice name. Not as good as Kurama though.' Naruto said.

"**Damn straight"** Kurama said.

Naruto and Kurama laughed. The two had become close over the year. Kurama actually enjoyed Naruto's company, even though he can still be a real annoying baka at times, and Naruto considered Kurama his friend… probably his best friend.

Naruto walked outside, to be greeted with a tall shinobi and a very feminine looking one, both were wearing Akatsuki cloaks. The tall one had bandages over his face and a large sword on his back. The other, looked like a very attractive young woman who was a few inches taller than Naruto; the person also had long black hair gathered in a white bun holder, with two locks of hair fallen loosely framing her face, and dark-brown eyes.

"H-Haku… Z-Zabuza?!" Naruto said.

"Well look who it is, the pipsqueak gaki from Konoha" Zabuza said with a grin hidden behind his bandages.

"It's nice to see you again Naruto-kun." Haku said with a smile.

Naruto just stood there dumbstrucked, there standing before him were his first enemy shinobi, who gave him his resolve to protect those precious to him, and died back in Wave, but were now standing in front of him as alive as the sun shined brightly in the sky.

"Geez kid, what happened to you?" Zabuza asked noticing the scared left side of Naruto.

"What happened to me? What Happened To You Guys?! I saw you two die back at Wave, how are you here?!" Naruto said majorly confused.

"One of the members of the organization brought us back to life." Zabuza answered nonchalantly.

"Who?" Naruto asked.

"I believe it was the one with the exotic purple eyes." Haku said.

"Oh, you mean Nagato. Yeah, I remember now, Nagato has the ability to bring someone from the dead back to life; he used it to bring Rin back to life, but it really drains him." Naruto said calmly.

Zabuza and Haku noticed how different Naruto had reacted. They thought he would be yelling or doing something annoyingly loud or stupid, but this was far from what they expected.

'The brats different… what did they do to him?' Zabuza thought as he eyed the young blonde carefully.

'He seems more mature and focused… is this really Naruto-kun?' Haku thought eyeing the boy with a bit of a blush.

"So, shall we get moving?" Naruto said as he pulled a hood over his head. Zabuza and Haku nodded, before they too, pulled their hoods over their heads. The trio then leapt into the trees.

"So kid, what have they been teaching you?" Zabuza asked.

"Well, I'm their assassin now. I specialize in stealth and infiltration; this is my first mission." Naruto said seriously. His eyes scanned the forest as they advanced to the Land of Waves. They were about a day's run from there; the Akatsuki headquarters was deep within the forests of the Land of Fire, well off the beaten path.

Naruto realized that this would be the first public mission the group was doing; others had been relatively low profile, just to make money for the group. Hidan and Kakuzu did some high profile assassinations, but it was never anyone too important, and they never left a trace. The Akatsuki were unknown to the shinobi world.

"An assassin?" Haku asked "Does that mean that you've already…"

"Killed? Yeah… I did; but it was just a few bandit, and besides… they deserved it." Naruto said with malice.

'Naruto-kun… I really wished you wouldn't have to go down the path of death, like Zabuza-sama and I.' Haku thought with a bit of sadness for the young blonde.

8 hours into the run, the trio made camp. They sat around a small fire that they made in a cave and used for cooking some fish they caught along the way, and Naruto pulled down his hood. Haku looked at Naruto and couldn't help but stare at the scarred side of his body. Getting a little curious, Zabuza went ahead and asked the question.

"So kid, how'd you get to look like a freak show?"

"Zabuza-sama!" Haku yelled his name.

"What? I'm just curious"

"I had a feeling you were gonna ask." Naruto sighed "About a year ago, my team and I were given a mission to find survivors of a village that were last seen in a mountain… there was only one. Her name was Akiko, and she seemed to have trusted me, considering I released her, saving her from the possibility of getting raped by her captors." Naruto noticed Haku flinched at hearing the rape part, something he didn't expect since he was an experienced shinobi; it just made Naruto curious. "After Sakura clothed Akiko, since she was… naked; the mountain started to erupt. Turns out it was a volcano. After some quick thinking, I managed to help get us out of there. Sasuke, Sakura, Akiko and I were running through a tunnel to meet up with Kakashi sensei, since we got separated. We made it to a cavern that was erupting with plumes of lava and fire everywhere, plus the whole damn place was collapsing. We started sprinting to get to the other side where Kakashi sensei was, but I got unlucky and got burnt by a plume of fire." Naruto showed the burn scars on his scarred left arm "My vision was blurring, I could barely see anything or keep my mind conscious, but I managed to see a giant boulder falling down to the ground; it was about to crush Sasuke, Sakura and Akiko. With the little strength I had left, I pushed them out of the way."

"And that's how the left side of your body was crushed." Haku stated the obvious.

"Yeah… after saying my 'final words' they managed to escape the volcano; although some had to be forced out." Naruto said thinking of Sakura. "While I was waiting for my demise, I made peace with my inner demon, and then that's when Obito saved me and brought me into the Akatsuki." Naruto finished his story.

"Not a bad story kid, but what do you mean by inner demon?" Zabuza asked.

"I'm the Kyuubi jinchuriki; I suppose we're alike, huh Zabuza? Both of us are demons, and we both want to change our respective villages." Zabuza and Haku's eyes widened, and they felt a newfound respect for the boy; Jinchurikis were notoriously treated badly. Their lives were a living hell.

"In fact, that's why I can't return to my village. You see, there's this man in the village. He's a sick, demented old fart; if I were to return, without my status as being alive, and without being a shinobi of Konoha officially, then he would jump at the chance and force me into his ranks. He has special ANBU division, and I would be treated as a slave; a mere weapon and breeding factory." Naruto finished.

Zabuza was gaping while Haku had his hand over his mouth.

'Holy shit… the boy's got it rough. How could he even smile?' Zabuza though

"Naruto-kun… what do you mean by breeding factory?" Haku asked

"Well, it turns out my dad, the Fourth Hokage, was baa-chan Tsunade's son, which means I'm the heir to the Senju clan. If that old bastard Danzo heard about it, he would get a bunch of women to rape me so that they can produce more Senju for his own little private army." Naruto explained.

"The women going down on you doesn't sound bad." Zabuza said, earning a smack in the arm from Haku.

"I had a feeling you were a pervert Zabuza." Naruto said dully.

"We're all perverts kid, I'm just not afraid to show." Zabuza said nonchalantly.

"The fish are done." Haku said still a bit irked at Zabuza.

As they were having their meal, one of the spare fish they had, was quietly being taken away, but Naruto noticed. Naruto turned around to see a small fox kit, the size of Akamaru, with a black stripe on it's back was taking away the fish "Looks like we got a little thief." Naruto said getting Haku and Zabuza's attention.

The little fox kit stood in front of the fish and growled at Naruto. Naruto just couldn't help chuckling at the little fox kit's action, it was really cute. Naruto then noticed the fox kit's front right leg was wounded and bleeding "Oh man, poor little guy." Naruto said.

Naruto brought his hand to the kit's wounded leg and gently grabbed it; the fox kit bit his hand making it bleed a little, but Naruto ignored the pain "Don't worry little guy, I'm going to help you." Naruto petted the fox kit's head. 'Kurama, do you think you can help me heal this little guy?'

"**For a young wounded kitling? Sure." **Kurama said pumping chakra into Naruto's hand that held the fox kit's wounded leg; starting to heal it.

The young fox kit started to feel a warm and nice sensation on his wounded leg as he also felt it heal. The kit looked at his leg to see red orange chakra cover his leg, and it was healing him. When the wound was all healed, the fox kit released Naruto's hand and started licking it, making the young jinchuriki giggle at the tickling sensation it gave.

"If you wanted some fish, you could've just asked." Naruto said with a smile. "Would you like to join us?" Naruto offered "I'm sure it would be way nicer eating by a fire than the cold, 'ttebayo."

The young fox kit was still a bit cautious, but something told him that he could trust the strange blonde boy. The young kit took the fish into it's mouth and made his way towards the fire. As the young kit was in front of the fire, he began to eat his fish.

"So, Naruto-kun. Who's your friend?" Haku asked

"He's just a hungry fox kit. I didn't get his name though." Naruto replied. Naruto turned to the little fox kit "What's your name anyway?" Naruto asked the kit.

"He didn't actually asked an animal it's name, did he?" Zabuza whispered to Haku.

The fox kit started yipping something to Naruto.

"Oh… so you don't have a name." Naruto said feeling bad about what he heard.

Apparently the fox kit had just escaped some bandits. They attacked him which explained the wound he had on his leg a little while ago. His parents dealt with them while he made a run to safety. His parents were no doubt dead by now.

"Then, how about I give you a name?" Naruto asked. The fox shrugged it's shoulders. "Okay, let's see. Hmm… I got it!" Naruto said snapping his fingers. "I'll call you, Mamoru." Naruto said.

"Protector? The kit's a runt, who would he protect?" Zabuza said. The fox kit looked down with some shame. Haku slapped Zabuza on the arm for making the little fox sad.

"Trust me, it's the perfect name for him." Naruto said "I can see it in his eyes. He's a protector alright." The fox kit smiled, as he jumped onto Naruto and started to lick his whisker marked cheeks.

"Heh heh, cut it out that tickles, 'ttebayo." Naruto said with a big smile on his face. Haku giggled a bit at the sight, while Zabuza just rolled his eyes and went back to eating his fish.

Inside Naruto's mind, Kurama saw the whole thing and smiled at the sight. **"Nice going kit. Looks like you just made a new friend."** Kurama was happy that Naruto was being kind to the young fox. In fact, the fox kit reminded Kurama a bit of Naruto when he was younger. Something told the Bijuu King that Naruto and Mamoru were meant to meet one another.

"So I guess you're stuck with him, huh Naruto-kun?" Haku said with a sweet smile. Mamoru started to yip something to Naruto.

"W-what?! Haku's not my girlfriend!" Naruto yelled with a blush on his face. Haku also blushed as well. "Besides, Haku's a boy." Naruto said.

Mamoru gave Naruto a 'Are you serious' look before he jumped off of the blonde and made his way to Haku. Mamoru jumped onto Haku and looked up at 'him'. Mamoru then placed both his paws on Haku's chest. It was then that Naruto noticed two bumps… on Haku's chest?! Naruto's jaw hit the floor.

"HAKU'S A GIRL?!" Naruto yelled as his voice echoed through the cave.

/

The next morning, Naruto and Zabuza started packing everything up. Mamoru was just staying by Naruto's side; he was still a little uneasy being around Zabuza.

"Hey Zabuza, where's Haku?" Naruto asked.

"Haku went back to that lake so she could clean herself up." Zabuza said.

"Oh okay." Naruto said. Suddenly Naruto felt killer intent being sent straight at him from Zabuza, scaring him a bit.

"Don't even think about going over there to peek at her. Unless you want to become chopped beef." Zabuza said menacingly, with an equally menacing glare.

"I-I-I Won't!" Naruto quickly said, putting his hands up with fear.

"You won't what Naruto-kun?" Haku asked as she made her way to them.

"Uh, I won't… touch Zabuza's sword. Even though it looks really cool." Naruto lied. Mamoru just rolled his eyes at the scene. Haku just giggled at Naruto's little white lie; she heard the whole conversation anyway.

"Well, we're all set." Zabuza said pulling his hood over his head, along with Haku.

Naruto looked down at Mamoru and realized that he most likely won't be able to keep up with them, so Naruto bent down to him. "Listen Mamoru, we're going to be traveling fast, so I think it would be best if you hopped onto my head." Naruto said.

Mamoru yipped in agreement, as he jumped onto Naruto's head.

Naruto stood up and pulled his hood over his head, covering Mamoru and hiding both the fox kit and his face. "Let's move." Naruto said as the three, I mean four, continued on their way to the Land of Waves.

Soon enough, they arrived at the bridge, which was now guarded by samurai, and was impossible to cross without permission. The way Naruto entered the land a year ago was blocked off permanently.

The three made their way towards the gate. Thankfully, Naruto had hit his growth spurt, thanks to his healthy diet and his training, so he was no longer a 'little shrimp'. Saved him from being called small fry from Zabuza.

A gruff looking man approached them. "Stated your names and business here."

Zabuza had sealed his sword away the night before, as to avoid suspicion, so they were forced to use alias.

"My name is Tetsuo, and my partners are Kaya" Zabuza gestured to Haku "And…"

"Hashi" Naruto answered for himself. Naruto knew that everyone would think that he came up with that name from the sight of the bridge, since Hashi means bridge, but really the young assassin gave himself said name from the first half of his great, great grandfather in memory of him.

"Hashi, huh?" the gruff man said "And how'd you get that name?"

"I don't see how that's any of yours?" Naruto said.

"I'm just saying it sounds pretty ridicules to name a child after-" the gruff man immediately silenced when he felt a wave of killer intent from 'Hashi'.

"Are you insulting my family? Just for giving me the name Hashi?" 'Hashi said sounding very menacing. He was really scaring the crap out of the gruff man.

"N-no, I wasn't, I-I-I was just doing my job, being security and all. Y-you understand, right?" the gruff man stuttered with fear. This guy was sweating, 'Hashi's' KI really made the man almost have a heart attack. 'Hashi' just stood silent for a moment, freaking the gruff man even more, thinking that he was probably going to mutilate him.

"Hn… I'm in a good mood today so I'll let it slide. But make any remark of my family or name again, and slice your stomach open and gut you like a fish gasping for water, and I'll make sure it will be slow… and excruciating." 'Hashi' said as his eyes glowed red, and then suddenly Mamoru showed his teeth and growled making the gruff man jump and freak him out even. Mamoru's teeth and growl along with the red eyes from 'Hashi', made the gruff man think that 'Hashi' was a demon. A demon he shouldn't mess with.

"Anyway, we're mercs for hire; your daimyo should be expecting us." 'Tetsuo' said.

"U-u-uh, please wait here for a moment" the gruff man said gaining his composure again, but didn't look at 'Hashi' at all. The gruff man went back to the gate, and after a brief conversation with his colleague, confirming their story, he gestured for them to come forward. The gate lifted, and two were escorted to the daimyo's house, but 'Hashi' decided to get one more scare out of the guy by quickly turning to him with a glare and a growl from Mamoru, effectively scaring the crap out of the guy. As 'Hashi' followed the others, 'Kaya' turned to him.

"You can be very mean Hashi" 'Kaya' said with a smirk.

"Oh come on, you got to admit it was amusing seeing him squirm." 'Hashi' chuckled with a grin, along with Mamoru. Naruto glanced around the town carefully; it was extremely different from the last time he was here. The buildings were reconstructed and more modernized, the people look somewhat happier than they had been; though Naruto attributed their lack of true peace to corrupt leader they had to deal with. He still saw a large amount of people living on the streets, and from the looks of the markets, the food was overpriced by a large amount.

His thoughts once again went back to Tazuna and Inari. 'Are they okay? The last time, the old man had missing-nin after him. The same one's next to me. He must be a magnet for trouble, if his attitude was anything to infer.'

A few minutes later, they arrived, and saw a rather plump, greedy looking man awaiting them. He was flanked by two thugs. A mental check of the photo they were given confirms it; this was the daimyo.

'Look at him all plump and fat, no doubt from all of the food he kept for himself, letting the villagers starve; I can't wait to kill him' Naruto thought

"Welcome! I'm glad the three of you are joining us. We've been having a real problem with the populace; damn scum don't know what's good for them" the daimyo said

Naruto stealthily readied a pronged, sealed kunai. A subtle nod from Zabuza gave him confirmation.

"It's our pleasure." Zabuza said

Not waiting any longer, Naruto threw his pronged kunai at the samurai on the daimyo's left, embedding itself in his throat. In a golden flash, Naruto appeared in front of the frightened daimyo, his hidden blade unsheathed.

With unseen speed, the blade impaled the bottom of the large man's jaw, piercing through the roof of his mouth and stabbed into his brain. The man twitched a few times, before falling to the ground, dead.

Suddenly a samurai charged at Naruto with his blade ready to cut him, but Mamoru jumped out of his hiding spot and bit the man's neck. As the samurai fell, he screamed in pain as Mamoru kept gnawing at his neck, making it bleed. Naruto just ripped out his pronged kunai from the decease samurai and stabbed the living one with it in his brains, leaving him deceased along with the rest. Zabuza and Haku had effortlessly disposed of all the guards.

"Nice work Mamoru, you really helped." Naruto said as he picked up the young fox kit and started petting him. "Told you he was a protector." Naruto said as he turned to Zabuza and Haku. Zabuza just grunted in response as Haku just giggled.

The populace gathered around the two Nin, and within minutes, erupted into cheers. It seemed as though they were waiting for something like this to happen, and were overjoyed that it did. An old man with a young boy on his back approached them, both grinning widely. Naruto immediately recognized them. 'Tazuna… Inari!'

"Thank you, thank you!" Tazuna exclaimed.

"Yeah, thanks a bunch!" Inari exclaimed as well. The three nodded.

"I'm guessing you're the candidate?" Naruto asked.

The old man nodded, and Inari grinned. Naruto smiled on the inside, but held a cold impassive look. "Take your position; and make sure this country knows peace, Tazuna-san. And if anyone asks how this came to be… only say that a new dawn is coming into the world." Naruto said, before the four disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Tazuna smiled softly. 'Thank you… Akatsuki.'

The Land of Waves was free once more.

And by the same person.

/

The four returned to the base. They opened the doors, and cheers erupted from their comrades. Naruto pulled his hood off, grinning. Zabuza and Haku, too, were smiling. Obito laughed and smacked Naruto on the back. "I knew you could do it, kid" the scarred Uchiha said, then noticed Mamoru "And who's this little guy?"

"Oh right, this Mamoru, I found him, or more like he found us, and he helped out in the mission. He pretty much saved my butt." Naruto introduced the young fox kit.

"Well then, it's nice to meet you Mamoru. Thanks for saving this kid, he's lost without someone watching him." Obito said, getting a yip of agreement from the fox kit and an annoyed look from Naruto. "Oh don't look so down Naruto, I'm just kidding… sort of."

"It's not that; at least not completely. It's just that… since we were in the Land of Waves, I wanted to travel to the ruins of Uzushiogakure and find scrolls on sealing and anything else on the Uzumaki clan and their work. But I had to follow through with the mission" Naruto said a little down.

"You didn't tell him?" Yahiko asked Obito.

"Tell me what?" Naruto asked with new curiosity.

"I was going to tell him when he was older." Obito said giving Yahiko an annoyed glare.

"Tell me what sensei?" Naruto asked starting to get impatient.

Obito just sighed. "The truth is, we had some agents travel to the remains of Uzushiogakure to collect scrolls and other important artifacts. Since the Uzumaki clan was feared for their techniques and everyone wished to get their hands on it, we figured to collect them and keep them safe from crimals and corrupt warlords."

"So they're here?!" Naruto asked with as with much excitement.

"Yes, but I want you to wait for a while before reading them." Obito told the young Uzumaki.

"Whatever you say sensei! As long as I get to read and study them soon in my life, then I'm okay with it." Naruto said with a toothy grin.

"Good boy." Obito said ruffling up Naruto's head again.

"Anyway Naruto, we'd like you to meet someone." Yahiko said as a dark skinned man wearing a bandana and sunglasses appeared next to him. "This is Killer Bee, the Hachibi Jinchuriki." Yahiko said, gesturing to the man beside him.

"Yo; it's good to meet you! I'm the one and only Killer Bee, vessel of the might Hachibi!" the man said. Naruto paled when he wrapped.

'This guy reminds me of Super Bushy Brows Guy-sensei' Naruto thought.

"It's nice to meet you, Octo-pops. I've heard a lot about you and Gyuuki." Naruto said with a smile.

Bee had a blank look on his face. "Gyuuki? So that's Hachibi's name?"

"He never told you?" Naruto said.

"**He probably never did so he wouldn't use his name in his stupid rhymes**" Kurama said in Naruto's mind.

'I guess that make's sense, but I would call them stupid' Naruto replied back to the nine-tailed beast through his mind.

"Naruto, you're going to be leaving with Bee on a training trip. Since you are on okay terms with the nine-tails, he's going to help you tap into your bijuu's power." Obito said.

Naruto nodded. "When?"

"Now. Pack your stuff. It could take anywhere from a week to a year, so prepare for that. We'll see you when you get back. By then… our plans should be ready to be put into action." Yahiko said, hinting at something _huge _for the Akatsuki.

"Alright then. Can I bring Mamoru?" Naruto asked

"The more the merrier." Yahiko said, as he then handed Naruto a large scroll. "That's the key to the seal on your stomach; I had Nagato make it. Good luck." Naruto placed Mamoru on his head and took the key, and nodded, before leaving to his quarters.

/

After packing and saying his goodbyes, the two jinchuriki traveled to a harbor. There, they took a small boat to an island that was strangely also a turtle.

Naruto had met Motoi, who was a man, according to Killer Bee, that could be trusted with even the most important secrets. This allowed Naruto to roam freely around the island and sight-see without his hood.

Before he left, Obito had given him a lengthy scroll, detailing the most complex transformation he had ever seen. Naruto had a few **Kage Bushins **to copy the scroll, and work on the technique while he followed Bee to a waterfall.

"Alright kid. Sit there, and focus on nothing, but your environment. Clear your thoughts. It will be then that you confront your true self." Motoi said.

Naruto did as he was told, and sat in front of the waterfall, closing his eyes. Soon, he felt a strange fog appeared around the area, and couldn't sense the presence of anyone nearby. He knew he was in his mind now. He opened his eyes to see a carbon copy of himself exit the waterfall, his eyes black, and his irises red.

His dark-self laughed. "Well, look who it is. Look at you. You're pathetic. You think they care about you in the Akatsuki, let alone Konoha? They're probably glad that we're '_dead'_."

"Geez quit sounding all emo." Naruto said as he glared at his copy. "The villagers were blinded by their hatred for Kurama; the old man didn't tell them what I really was. Fear spreads paranoia, which in turn spreads hate." Naruto spat. The darker version of himself just laughed.

Oh please. They just hated us for being us. Sasuke-teme and Sakura-_chan _wanted nothing to do with you, Naruto. Speaking of which… I bet their probably fucking now, wouldn't you agre-"

"SHUT UP!" Naruto yelled, preparing a Rasengan. His darker-self grinned and did the same. Naruto charged, and the two met, Rasengan vs. Rasengan. They exploded on contact, and the two Naruto's jumped backwards. The Dark Naruto started to chuckle darkly.

"Look at that, you really think peace is obtainable? Bullshit. You're a fool for thinking otherwise. Everyone in this rotting world will always be filled with hate and rage that they will be blind to everything else. Look what I just did to you. Love breeds hate. Hate breeds conflict. An unending circle of life filled with everlasting darkness and damnation. One word about your precious 'Sakura-chan' and you were set off." Dark Naruto explained. The real Naruto just sighed.

"I'm the true Naruto; your inner feelings and thoughts. Who you _really_ are."

"You're right. But how do you think I still like Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked. His darker-self froze. "Because I know, deep down, she was kind, considerate and trustworthy. She only did those things because I was an idiot. Same with the villagers; I'm the vessel of the Kyuubi. Civilians wouldn't know the difference between the Bijuu and the Jinchuriki."

"Shut The Fuck Up! You Don't Know Anything! They Scorned Us! Sakura-teme Ignored Us For The Uchiha! You Can't Forgive Them For That!" The Dark Naruto yelled, gesturing wildly with his hands.

Naruto smiled as his darker-self charged at him, and he caught him in an embrace. "But I already have forgiven them. And so have you." Naruto said. "Remember what Sakura-chan said back when we were being crushed by that boulder? She said that she didn't want to leave our side again. That was enough to know she truly did care for us." His darker-self's eyes widened, and turned blue, with tears in his eyes.

"I wonder though… do we forgive them because of her." Dark Naruto whispered before he faded away.

Naruto then snapped his eyes open, now out of his mind. He turned to Bee and Motoi, grinning.

Their eyes widened. "Did you already do it?" Motoi asked. Naruto nodded. "Nice kid, even Bee didn't get it on his first try." He said. The Hachibi vessel grinned, holding his fist out.

"Hit me up, boss." Bee said. Naruto smirked and bumped his fists with Bee.

"So what now Octo-pops?" Naruto asked, as he picked up Mamoru and put him on his head.

"Now, we go behind the waterfall." Bee said as he led the three through the waterfall into a massive cavern underneath the mountains. Mamoru growled when he was hit with the water making him all wet and Naruto's head all dry.

"Sorry Mamoru." Naruto said as he nervously chuckled and scratched the back of his head.

As they walked on, they saw carvings of headless statues along the walkway, which led to a large wall with a huge number of designs on it.

They walked up to a lion's head "Stick your head in there, and pull the lever. If you truly got rid of all the hatred within you, then you will live. If not… you will end up like them." Motoi said, gesturing to the statues. Naruto gulped, and nodded.

After setting Mamoru down onto the ground, Naruto stuck his head into the mouth of the lion. The others waited for Naruto to pull the lever, but then they heard him scream. Motoi grabbed Naruto and pulled him out to see he was headless.

"The poor kid. How Could This Have Happened!" Motoi thought with a look stricken with horror

"Just kidding!" Naruto exclaimed as he pulled his shirt down revealing his head. Motoi just turned all white with a blank look on his face. "It's a habit. I couldn't help myself." Naruto said.

"I did the same thing too. Out of habit. Those stone statues are just broken. It's just some wit." Bee rapped.

"I Thought You Kept Telling Me That This Was A Sacred Place?! Fools, Ya Fools!" Motoi yelled with a freaked out pissed look

A doorway then suddenly opened and the four walked into a strange room that was pure white; it seemed as though they were floating on nothing.

"Alright kid, sit down, and close your eyes. You will appear in front your Bijju. There you will have to tame it." Motoi said, but then felt some killer intent from Naruto, who glared straight at Motoi.

"Don't you ever call Kurama an 'it', or else I'll rip your tongue out of your mouth!" Naruto said menacingly.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Naruto and his Bijuu already made peace." Bee said turning to a sweating Motoi.

"Is that so? My apologies." Motoi bowed apologetically to Naruto.

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Kurama." Naruto said

"Kurama?" Motoi asked Bee.

"Kyuubi's real name. Turns out all the Bijuu have a name, check it out." Bee got into his rapping stance "Yo, me, the rappin' Killer Bee and the Hachibi Gyuuki, taking down fools, one, two, three. Our power all blazing out with a flare, fools, ya fools beware." Bee finished getting looks from the others.

"That was… Cool!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin getting an 'are you serious' look from Motoi and Mamoru. "I gotta come up with a rap for me and Kurama!"

"**DON'T YOU EVEN DARE!**" the Bijuu King yelled inside Naruto's mind.

"Alright, fine, I won't" Naruto said out loud.

"I'm guessing the Kyuubi doesn't agree." Motoi said.

"Isn't it obvious?" Naruto said.

"So if you and the Kyuubi are already in sync, then why are you here?" Motoi asked.

"I want to free Kurama from the seal that my Tou-chan placed on him. I want to be full-fledged partners." Naruto said with much determination

"But what if he doesn't agree?" Motoi asked.

"Then at least he'll be free. I don't like the fact that he's behind a cage, like a prisoner." Naruto said.

Motoi, Bee and Mamoru smiled at this 'They're going to go far' they thought.

"Alright, it's time to meet up with the Kyuubi, fools, ya fools" Bee said with a smirk.

Naruto sat down, but before he closed his eyes, Mamoru jumped on top of his head. Naruto closed his eyes, and entered his mindscape.

Maruto opened his eyes and to see he was in his mindscape, and that he was in front of Kurama's cage. Kurama opened his red, slitted eyes to see Naruto, and someone else.

"**I see you brought the little kittling as well, Naruto.**" Kurama said, grinning. Naruto raised his eyebrow and looked down to see Mamoru, who was gazing at the giant nine-tailed fox king with awe.

"Mamoru? How'd he get here?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"It seems that you're both your chakra became linked when he made contact with you, right before you entered your mindscape." Kurama said, but suddenly he felt something rubbing against his paw. He looked down to see it was Mamoru with. Kurama had his eyes widened and a blush on his face. Naruto burst out laughing at the sight.

"Oh man, Hahaha, that's so cute, hahahaha, he imprinted on you!" Naruto said laughing out loud.

"**S-S-Shut Up!**" Kurama exclaimed grabbing Mamoru and placing him back on Naruto's head.

"Kurama" Naruto started getting said fox's attention "Before I open the seal… I want you to know that one of my goals, besides attaining world peace and becoming Hokage, is getting rid of all that hatred inside of you." he said surprising the Bijuu King.

"**Why?**" Kurama asked curiously.

Naruto just smiled "Because we're friends. And friends help each other in anyway, no matter what the cost. I promise I'll get rid of all of it Kurama. And I never break, especially not to a friend. Because That's My Ninja Way!" Naruto exclaimed pounding his chest with a grin.

Kurama was floored. He didn't expect his vessel actually considered him a friend and was showing genuine concern for him. Friendship was completely foreign to him. Kurama sensed for any negative emotions in the young blonde, but froze when he sensed nothing.

"**Where is all that hatred you had harbored over the years kit? All the hatred and distaste that was breed by those maggots in the village that scorned us, belittled us and hurt us?**"

"I am my true self Kurama. Remember when I said we were the same? This just proves that it's not too late for you. I believe in you Kurama." Naruto said with a smile and Mamoru yipping in agreement. Kurama was just speechless; no one had ever believed in him before, except for his creator. "Now for your freedom." Naruto said before unzipping his cloak and high collar shirt. The seal appeared on his well-defined abs, and the key appeared on his right arm.

"**Naruto, you don't have to free me.**" Kurama said.

"You're right. I don't have to." Naruto placed hand on his stomach "I want to." Naruto then turned his hand. The seal on Kurama's cage had opened as the bared gates opened, freeing the mighty Bijuu. Kurama walked up to Naruto and Mamoru and smiled.

"**Thank you, Naruto**" Kurama said.

"That's what friends are for." Naruto replied smiling.

Kurama just smiled at Naruto, but then had a look of shock "**You've got to be kidding me**" Kurama said with the look of shock still evident on his face.

"What's wrong, Kurama?" Naruto asked him.

"Kurama, huh? I had a feeling that giant furball had a name." A male voice said behind Naruto. Suddenly two hands grabbed both of Naruto's shoulders.

"We'll take hit from here, Kyuubi, dattebane." A female voice had said.

Suddenly, blinding light engulfed both Naruto and Mamoru. As the light fade Naruto jumped away from the hands to notice he was in a white room, just like the room he entered after his little headless trick.

"Naruto." Naruto heard his name from a pair of voices. Naruto slowly turned towards the source of voices. As he faced the source, he saw a tall man with cerulean eyes and blonde hair, just like his, except the man had long bangs draping the sides of his face, and beside the man was a beautiful woman with violet eyes and long beautiful red hair. Naruto was speechless, he knew who the man standing in front of him was.

"Dad?" Naruto said, getting a smile from the man. "Mom?" he said turning to the woman who was also smiling at him. Naruto's lips started to quiver and his eyes all teary.

"It's good to see you again, Nar-" the woman started to speak, but was interrupted when her and the man were tackled into a hug.

"I've always wanted to meet you guys, 'ttebayo" Naruto said with tears streaming down his eyes.

"'ttebayo? You really are my son." Kushina said with a smile, while Minato chuckled.

Naruto pulled away from them and smiled "I've got so many questions to ask you, but… you're not staying for long are you?" Naruto said with a frown on his face.

"I'm afraid so" Minato said as he and Kushina also had frowns on their faces.

"Then, I really want to know… how did you guys fall in love?" Naruto asked making the two blush.

"I-it's… a bit embarrassing, 'ttebane" Kushina said blushing from embarrassment.

"Embarrassing? I thought it was really cute." Minato laughed. Kushina glared at her husband.

"B-Baka!" she yelled punching Minato in the head

Naruto's eyes widened, in an instant he saw an image of himself and… Sakura. Naruto then smiled and started to cry. His parents looked at him with concern.

"N-Naruto, are you okay?!" Kushina said worrying about her child. Suddenly Naruto started to laugh, making his parents confused. "What's so funny, 'ttebane?!"

"Nothing mom, it's just… you remind me of Sakura-chan when you hit dad like that" Naruto said still chuckling a bit "I mean, you're just as beautiful as her too" he said making his mother blush.

"Oh, well thank you" Kushina smiled.

"So anyway…" Naruto started

"Oh right, well you see, your father and I were both still little kids" Kushina started "I had just moved from Uzushiogakure and entered the academy as a new transfer student. At the time, I was placed in the same class as your father."

"She first thought that I was girly and undependable." Minato said "Your mother then blurted out that she wanted to be the first female Hokage"

"Which isn't a good thing for someone to just say when they just transferred to a new village, it makes you seem snobby, 'ttebane." Kushina lectured "Your father then stood and said that he wanted to become Hokage and be respected by everyone."

"I wasn't trying to challenge your mother if that's what you're thinking right now." Minato quickly said.

"It just sounded like a joke to me." Kushina said.

"What? But dad seemed so powerful in what I read about him?!" Naruto said.

"I know… but I was still young and didn't know anything back then, so I looked down on Minato." Kushina said "Until a certain incident happened"

"An incident?" Naruto asked.

"I used to really hate my red hair. But after the incident, I started to like it." She said with a smile rubbing some of her locks of hair.

"…What happened?" Naruto asked with curiosity and anticipation.

"I have a slightly special chakra… And I was kidnapped by Kumogakure because of it." she said.

"You were… kidnapped!?"

"They suddenly captured me and took me away to Kumo, and I wasn't able to put up much of a fight." Kushina said "But I knew I had to do something. In order to leave a trail behind, while I was being led away. I snipped off and dropped strands of my hair. Carefully, so the enemy wouldn't notice. Konoha immediately put together search parties, but they had a hard time finding me… we were almost to the border, and I thought I was done for… but then…" Kushina then felt Minato grabb her hand with his own, intwining their fingers together. She looked to her husband with a smile that he gladly returned.

"Was That When…!?" Naruto said getting excited

"Yep, your father was the one who rushed to my side and rescue me." Kushina smiled.

"It wasn't difficult." Minato said "After all, your mother's hair is so beautiful that I could never forget it." he said staring lovingly at his wife. Kushina hugged Minato and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, mom's hair sure is pretty." Naruto smiled with a blush.

"That day, I knew your father really would be a great shinobi. I realized that he could make all my dreams come true. And that he could change me. The red hair that I had always hated had brought me the man of my dreams. My hair became my 'red thread of destiny'" Kushina smiled at the memory "After that I grew to love my hair. And more importantly, I fell in love with Minato."

Naruto smiled, and then started to think 'Mom and dad… they remind me so much of me and Sakura-chan… then… does that mean that… we…'

"Naruto" Kushina said her son's name getting his attention "There are certain words that I only bestow to those who compliment my hair. Will you accept them?" Naruto nodded in response "Naruto… I love you."

Naruto eyes widened with shock 'Wow… I feel so calm… and happy!' Naruto smiled before he tackled his parents into a hug with tears of joy in his eyes "I love you too, kaa-san, tou-chan" he spoke the words he always dreamed say.

Both his parents smile with joy, happy that there child loved them as well. As Naruto released his parents he looked at them "Mom, dad, about what happened on the day of Kurama's forced attack…"

"We know." Minato said getting Naruto's attention "Tell Obito, that we forgive him."

"I'm sure he'll be happy to hear that." Naruto said with a smile "And I'm guessing you also know about Tsunade baa-chan and Ero-sennin are…"

"Yeah… it was pretty surprising." Minato said.

"Shocking is more like it; your father froze when he heard Obito tell you." Kushina said.

"… Are you alright dad?" Naruto asked his father.

"Yeah… like you Naruto, I've always wanted to meet my own parents… who would've thought they have been by my side this whole time." Minato said with a lone tear going down his eye.

"At least you got the chance to meet them and know them." Naruto said.

"Something I wished for you, Naruto." Minato said a bit saddened.

"What are you talking about?! I finally got to meet you guys, and I know enough about the two of you." Naruto said "You two are strong and awesome shinobi, you put others before yourselves, you never let anything demeanor your will, you truly do love each other with all your hearts… and you love me."

"With all our hearts." They both said in unison.

"I just wish your sister was here." Kushina said with sadness. Naruto's eyes widened in shock.

"I… I have a sister?" Naruto asked with shock. Kushina and Minato nodded.

"It turns out, I was pregnant with twins. You and your sister, Akane." Kushina said.

"What happened to her?" Naruto asked anxious to find the only other family he had left in this world, besides his grandparents.

"When I used the **Shiki Fujin**, I split the Kyuubi's chakra…"

"His name's Kurama dad." Naruto interrupted.

"Naruto, don't interrupt people." Kushina lectured her son.

"Sorry mom." Naruto said rubbing the back of his head.

"It's alright Naruto, you were just looking out for a friend." Minato said, still in disbelief that Naruto actually became friends with the Bijuu King "Anyway, I split Kurama's chakra in half. You were given his yang chakra, while Akane had his Yin."

"But what happened to her?!" Naruto asked.

"I'm afraid we don't know." Minato said. He turned to see Kushina in tears, so he hugged her.

"So… does that mean… she's…" Naruto said with sadness in his voice.

"**No**"

The three turned to see Kurama

"Kurama? How did you get here?" Naruto asked.

"**Does it really matter?**"

"I guess not." Naruto said.

"Kyuubi… what are you talking about?!" Kushina asked with renewed hope inside her.

"**Even though my chakra was separated, I am still connected to it, and I still sense my chakra. It is mixed with another. The chakra of an Uzumaki.** **A female. And her chakra is just like yours Kushina.**" Kurama said.

"So… she's alive… She's Alive, ttebayo!" Naruto started jumping for joy. He then turned to his parents "Mom, dad, I promise I'll find Akane. That's my promise of a life time, Believe It!"

Kushin started shedding tears "Thank you Naruto-kun. I am so, so sorry that we couldn't be there for you."

"**Don't blame yourselves.**" Kurama said surprising the two older shinobi "**You tried your best to stay alive, but still through the whole thing, you protected your children at the cost of your lives, that is a lot to the kits. Isn't that right Naruto?**"

Naruto nodded "Yeah… you guys died for me and Akane, you loved us so much… I'm happy that I'm your son, and where ever Akane is, I'm sure, no, I know that she's happy to be your daughter." Naruto said with his trademark foxy grin.

Both his parents had tears of joy in their eyes. They then hugged him with so much love. "Naruto." They both said.

"Thank you for making me a father." Minato said.

"And me a mother." Kushina said.

"Thank you." The two said "For being born to us."

"Please don't leave me." Naruto said with tears going down his face as he held his parents tightly.

Kurama looked at the three with concern. Naruto was the only being besides the sage who created him, that showed him true kindness and actually considered him a friend. He had an idea. "**I have an idea**" the fox king said.

The three looked up to see Kurama put up his fist like Bee does. **"Put your fists onto mine."** Minato and Kushina were a bit weary, but Naruto trust he best friend with all his heart and did as he said, along with Mamoru. **"You two as well." **Seeing no evil intentions behind it, Minato and Kushina placed their fists onto Kurama's.

Suddenly the four then felt incredible power course within them, suddenly the four were engulfed into golden flames. They looked at themselves to see that their bodies had changed into pure, golden flames that felt so lively, so warm. It was incredible and beautiful.

"What happened?" Naruto asked.

"**All three" **Kurama then heard a yip **"Sorry, I mean all **_**four**_** of you now have my chakra within you. Minato, Kushina, your chakra now flows within me, which means that now, you can stay within Naruto, as long as he may live."**

Naruto, Minato and Kushina had tears of joy pouring out of their eyes as they gave each other a family hug.

"I'm So Happy!" Naruto cried. He then separated from his parents and ran to Kurama and hugged his paw "Thank you Kurama… this means so much to me." Naruto thanked his best friend with tears of joy pouring out of his eyes.

"**You're welcome, just stop hugging"** Kurama said, but Naruto still hugged him. Minato, Kushina and Mamoru then joined him, thankful to the Bijuu King. Minato and Kushina for making them stay with their son from now on, and Mamoru for making Naruto so happy. **"Okay you could stop now."** But they just continued on making Kurama sigh.

Outside of Naruto's mindscape, Bee and Motoi were staring at Naruto. Bee had a smile on his face, because thanks to Gyuuki's help, he could see what's going on in Naruto's mind, because of the mental link he had with the fox inside.

"What do you think is going on in there?" Motoi asked his best friend.

"Something unbelievable." Bee said with a smile.

Suddenly Naruto's eyes open wide as he exclaimed "Yatta!" with a huge grin on his face

Motoi jumped a bit at the sudden outburst, while Bee still smiled astonish at what went down in Naruto's mind 'Looks like the kid really did change the Kyuubi'

"**But to lengths that he would actually do something like that, is unbelievable" **Gyuuki said to his vessel.

"So does this that you and the Kyu- I mean Kurama are partners now?" Motoi asked

"Yeah, but he isn't going to give me full control yet, he wants to see how far I'll go in my goal for peace, but he is going to give me a bit of his chakra from time to time." the blonde answered "Check this out. Ready Mamoru!?" Naruto exclaimed getting a yip in response.

Naruto and Mamoru then called upon Kurama's chakra, and both their bodies burst into pure, golden flames. The two could sense Bee and Motoi's emotions, and they felt stronger, faster and all around _better._

Kurama's voice echoed from within their minds. **"Alright you two listen, be wary of this form. It casts a large chakra signature, and it will only last about 10 minutes with the amount of chakra I'm supplying you, understand?"**

The two mentally nodded to Kurama.

Suddenly, Mamoru started running around the room at an incredible speed, he looked like a living bolt of lightning.

'What kind of powers do you have, Kurama?' Naruto thought. The beast chuckled from within his mind.

"**The one you can do in that mode is my most powerful; the tailed beast ball."** Kurama said.

'I like the sound of that.' Naruto thought with excitement making Kurama chuckle within Naruto's mind.

"**To create it is much like your Rasengan, though you must balance the correct chakra ratio of 8:2, positive to negative."**

Naruto nodded to him.

"Octo-pops, Kurama says I can create a **tailed beast ball**, any advice before I go for it?" Naruto asked his sempai

The Hachibi vessel nodded. "Yo, to assist in making it, imagine the chakra forming arms; it helps in balancing the ratio."

Naruto nodded and did so, and two large claws sprung from his back, and hung in front of him. He grinned, and began to form a Rasengan. Instead of swirling ball of chakra forming, however, purple, red, and blue sphere started to form together. "Hey… this is actually pretty easy, 'tteba-" but suddenly the ball became too unstable that it exploded in Naruto's face.

"Yo!" Naruto yelled as he flew back, landing with a grunt.

"Naruto!" Minato and Kushina screamed their son's name in worry and concern.

"I'm okay, don't worry, all I feel is an aftershock, nothing to worry about." Naruto said as he got up, with Mamoru appeared by his side. Bee's jaw was slacking, and Motoi looked shocked.

"You… you actually formed it!" Motoi exclaimed. Bee nodded in agreement enthusiastically. The kid was just full of surprises.

Naruto jumped to his feet, and for the next month, he continued to practice the **tailed beast ball**, and his techniques and also trained his teamwork with Mamoru with Kurama's chakra.

/

The three stood at the docks outside of the island. Naruto shook Motoi's hand.

"It was nice meeting and training with you Motoi." Mamoru yipped in agreement.

"Likewise, Naruto Uzumaki. I look forward to meeting you and Mamoru again. I bid you and the Akatsuki good luck on your mission for peace." Motoi said smiling. He then bumped fists with Bee, before pulling him into a brotherly hug.

"Be safe, Bee-san." He said. Bee nodded while grinning.

Naruto had almost mastered the **tailed beast ball**; it was severly unstable, but Naruto can hold it for 15 seconds without it exploding. He also could control the power of the explosion. He and Mamoru had also made use of Kurama's chakra and made a few teamwork attacks that were pretty deadly. Thanks to Kurama's power flowing within Mamoru, the young fox kit was a _super _fox!

The transformation jutsu that Obito had given him was completely understood, and Naruto and Mamoru practiced with it. It completely changed the outward appearance of the user, and could only be dispelled by a strong, direct hit to the chest. It also altered the user's chakra signature, which was good for the two; their chakra reserves were getting enormously high.

The two jinchuriki, donned in their cloaks, stepped onto the boat. Naruto placed Mamoru onto his head and pulled his hood over him and his head, and they sailed off, back to the Land of Fire, and the Akatsuki'd base.

/

They arrived a week later, and walked into the compound. Yahiko and Obito were there to greet them, looking completely serious.

"Well? How did it go?" Obito asked, his eyes shimmering with anticipation. Naruto had eventually gotten over the 'melted' part of his face. Don't get him wrong, he's not judging, after all the left his face was similar to his, but it was something to get used to. Obito had told him the whole story, and it only increased the blonde's amount of respect for him, but it was incredibly unbelievable that they both earned their crushed scars from saving their teammates from getting crushed by a boulder. It was like Naruto was always chasing after Obito's shadow.

"I had freed Kurama from his prison; he has entrusted Mamoru and I with some of his chakra to see what we can do with it and what we use it for. I plan to get rid of his hatred completely; I want to work together with him. If I do well with his chakra, then he and I will finally be full-fledged partners." Naruto said proudly. The two leaders of Akatsuki stared at him, stunned, but then grinned. Obito ruffled his hair.

"Good work, Naruto." Obito said with a grin.

"Was there any doubt?" Naruto asked rhetorically.

"Not from me, Naruto." Obito genuinely smiled at Naruto, who returned his own. Naruto was happy that he had his father within him now, but Obito would always have a place in his heart as a second father, and same with Rin as a second mother.

Yahiko then patted him on the shoulder, a rub on the head from Mamoru, who was still planted on his head, while Bee gave him the thumbs up and walked deeper into the base to talk to the other members.

"Naruto… our plans are coming together. We, along with Nagato, are going to be training you to the bone, and sending you on mildly high ranked missions for nine months. At the end of those nine months… Akatsuki is going to go public." Yahiko said, with a proud smile. Naruto couldn't help but return it.

Akatsuki was his true home.

/

Naruto, Obito, and Rin were sitting at the dining room table, while Mamoru was on the floor chewing on a bone. Naruto had been living with them ever since he first joined Akatsuki, at first he didn't want to impose, but Obito and Rin insisted; and how could he ever say no to them, after all, they saved his life.

"Getting rid of all of Kurama's hatred isn't going to be easy Naruto-kun." Rin said with a smile, happy that Naruto was finally home again.

"Neither is world peace, but we're going to get it, I just know it." Naruto said with a proud smile. The two smiled back at him, but then noticed him frowning.

"What's wrong Naruto-kun?" Rin asked.

"Well… I hope you don't get mad at me… but I left something out in the report." Naruto said a bit nervous.

"What exactly is it?" Obito asked with a serious look.

"After I freed Kurama… I finally met them… my real mom and dad." Naruto told them. Obito and Rin's eyes widened.

"Well don't leave us in suspense, what happened?!" Rin asked anxious to hear what Naruto spoke to her old sensei and his wife about.

"Well, they told me how they fell in love."

"Oh, I bet it was romantic." Rin said with an excited grin.

"Yeah, it was." Naruto smiled "They also told me that I have a twin sister." That shocked Rin and Obito.

"It turns out that dad split Kurama's chakra and placed both halves inside of me and my sister, Akane. I think she was kidnapped after mom and dad had… you know. Kurama sensed the other half of his chakra somewhere out there in the world, and it's mixed with a female Uzumaki that has chakra that's just like mom's, which means that she's still out there, alive. And I plan to find her, no matter what. That's my promise of a lifetime to my parents, and I plan to keep it, because that's my nindo, Believe It!" Naruto exclaimed proudly.

Obito and Rin smiled. "And we'll help you find her." Obito said. "It's the least I could do for sensei and Kushina-sama after what I had done." Obito frowned as Rin hugged him.

"But Obito… mom and dad forgive you. They told me themselves." Naruto said.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but I just can't believe that… not after what I've done." Obito said with much sadness in his voice.

Naruto didn't want to see his surrogate father like this, he tried thinking of something.

"**Hey kit, I have an idea to make this sulking Uchiha stop his bitching." **Kurama said. Naruto listened attentively and started to smile. Naruto then made his signature hand sign.

"**Kage Bushin no Jutsu**" Naruto called out his signature jutsu, as two clones appeared. Rin and Obito were confused as to why Naruto did this. Naruto walked up to his clones and place a hand on each of them. Suddenly golden flames engulfed the two. As the flames disappeared, there standing in front of them was Minato and Kushina.

Rin and Obito were in shock.

"Long time no see you two." Minato said with a cheerful grin. "You've both grown."

"S-sensei? Is That Really You?!" Rin exclaimed with tears of joy in her eyes.

"Yep." Minato said.

Obito stood up from the table and walked towards his sensei and examined him. "It… it really is you… isn't it?" Obito said in disbelief.

Suddenly Obito was punched in the head by Kushina, surprising everyone.

"Mom! Why'd You Do That?!" Naruto exclaimed in shock.

"That was for being a baka." Kushina said rubbing her fist.

"I deserved that." Obito said with a down expression, but he suddenly felt a kiss on his cheek. He looked up to see it was Kushina who did it.

"And that was for saving my son and taking care of him." Kushina said with a smile on her face.

Obito then felt a hand on his head. He turned to see it was his sensei. "Thank you Obito… for watching over Naruto." Minato said with an appreciative smile.

"How?... How can you both forgive me after what I've done?" Obito asked with so much disbelief that his sensei and Kushin could forgive him so easily.

"Obito." Minato said taking his hand off of his old students head "I've watched you grow up back when we were a part of Team 7, you're a good boy, or man now. I know that the only way you'd ever do something so horrible was if you were being controlled by someone else to do so."

"But I did it on my own free will! I took you away from Naruto and destroyed your family, making his life a misery! I'm… I'm…"

"Are you sorry?" Minato asked.

"What?" Obito asked.

"Are you sorry?" Minato repeated.

Obito started to cry. "So very, very sorry, sensei."

"Then I forgive you." Minato said with a smile.

"Same with me, 'ttebane." Kushina said.

Obito looked at them with shock.

"And besides." Minato ruffled Naruto's head "You saved our son, and raised him to be a fine shinobi."

"Unlike Kakashi." Kushina added, wanting to beat the living crap out of the copy nin.

"And for that, I am grateful." Minato said.

"As am I." Kushina said. The two smiled at him.

"Now do you believe me?" Naruto said with a grin.

"Naruto," Obito started. Naruto looked at him, but was shocked when he then hugged him. "Thank you." Obito said starting to cry.

"Anytime, sensei." Naruto said hugging him back. They separated as Rin started to get up and walked to her sensei giving both him and Kushina a hug.

"I'm so happy to see you both again." She said with tears of joy.

"Same here. I'm so happy you're alive again Rin." Minato said as he and Kushina hugged the brunette.

"I was just about to cook dinner, would you two like to join?" Rin asked hoping they'd say yes.

"Why not." Minato said with a smile.

"I'll help you cook." Kushina said.

"Oh no Kushina-sama, you are my guest." Rin said.

"I insist Rin-chan." Kushin said.

Rin smiled as she and Kushina left to the kitchen.

"So you are now within Naruto?" Obito asked as he and the two blondes sat down.

"Yep. And it was all thanks to the Kyuubi no Kitsune, Kurama." Minato said with a happy smile.

"Sensei. I promise that I too will also look for Akane, you have my word." Obito said with much determination in his voice.

"I know Obito." Minato said with a genuine smile.

Naruto was happy. He made Obito happy, and he was spending time with his family. It was nice, but it would have been better if his old team was with them. 'I wonder how they're doing?' Naruto thought as he looked out the window.

/

At training ground 7 in Konoha, Sasuke Uchiha was panting after the spare he had done with Kakashi.

"You're improving." Kakashi said.

"And I'm just going to get better." Sasuke said with a confident smirk. Kakashi just smirk as well underneath his mask.

'He has inherited Naruto's will. An undying determination and he carries the will of fire proudly. Are you watching Naruto? You're making him, and no doubt Sakura stronger. It's all thanks to you that Sasuke is straying from his path of vengeance.' Kakashi smiled.

"I think that's enough for today Sasuke. You don't want your body to quit on you, right?" Kakashi said.

Sasuke sheathed his O-katana before he bowed to his sensei and left the training grounds for home.

"He's actually showing respect." Jiraiya said appearing next to Kakashi.

"It's all thanks to him." Kakash said. Jiraiya nodded in agreement.

As Sasuke walked towards his home, he looked towards the stars. 'I promise Naruto, I will beat my hatred, I will grow strong, and I will protect Sakura. Rest assured brother, I will not fail you.' Sasuke thought with a smile and a lone tear going down his eye.

/

At another training ground, Sakura was panting hard. Ever since she started training under Tsunade, she was given one hell of a training regime. Every day she falt as if she was on the brink of death, but she never gave up, Naruto wouldn't give up and neither would she.

Tsunade stared at her pupil with a proud smile. Tsunade had been pushing Sakura so hard that anyone else would just give, but she still fought on. "Still not giving up?" Tsunade asked.

"No… Never!" Sakura exclaimed "Naruto-kun wouldn't and neither will, Shannaroo! Believe It!" Sakura yelled her and Naruto's phrases with pride and thrusting her fist.

Tsunade had tears in her eyes. 'Just look at her Naruto… you made her this way. We'd give anything to have you back, but I am so happy that she adopted your will.'

"A-are you okay Tsunade-shishou?" Sakura asked with concern.

"Yes of course." Tsunade said wiping away her tears. "That's enough for today Sakura. Go home and rest, you deserved it."

"Thank you Tsunade-shishou." Sakura bowed to her sensei, before leaving for home.

Tsunade then felt a pair of arms around her "She's also gotten stronger thanks to the kid." Jiraiya said putting his chin on Tsunade's shoulder.

"Yeah. She sure has." Tsunade agreed going deeper into the embrace.

On her way home, Sakura looked up into the stares 'Naruto-kun… I promise, I will get stronger and be worthy of your sacrifice… just keep watch my 'Shugo No Tenshi'.' Sakura then blew a kiss to her 'guardian angel', where ever he may be.

/

After helping Rin with the dishes, Naruot started to head to bed. His parents had already returned back to him after they had dinner. "Goodnight you guys" Naruto said, before heading to bed.

"Goodnight Naruto-kun, sweet dreams." Rin wished him goodnight with a warm smile.

"Night kid." Obito said with a smile.

As Naruto closed his door, Rin and Obito headed to bed themselves.

"Obito." Rin said her boyfriend's name as she changed.

"Hm?" Obito replied, sort of.

"Remember what Naruto said earlier?" she asked him.

"Depends, he says a lot of things." Obito said with a smirk.

"He called Minato-sensei and Kushina-sama, his _real_ parents." She said sitting on her side of the bed.

"Well they are his real parents." Obito said sitting next to her on his side.

"Yes, but does that mean that he thinks of us as…"

Obito realized what she meant and smiled as he then held her "I guess he does." He said with a genuine smile on his face. Rin smiled at him as well. They kissed goodnight, turned off the lights and went to bed.

In Naruto's room, Mamoru laid sleeping on the blonde's bed, as the young jinchuriki grabbed a sketch pad. He grew a hobby of sketching. It brought him peace, and Rin loved all of his sketches, which always brought smile to his face that his surrogate mother loved his creations. Naruto kept turning the pages, until he found what he was looking for and smiled.

/

Sakura walked into her bedroom and immediately undressed down to her underwear. She sat down on her bed, and grabbed her picture of Team 7. Her eyes shimmered with sadness and joy as she stared at Naruto's face. He was making that annoyed look that was direct at Sasuke, but she thought it was cute, and it always made her giggle. She kissed Naruto's picture and lay down on her bed holding the picture to her chest, as she did every night. "Goodnight, Naruto-kun." She said before falling asleep.

/

Naruto stared at a sketch of Sakura he did from memory, and it looked just like her. His eyes shimmered with sadness and joy as he stared at Sakura's perfect face. She looked beautiful as always, which always made him smile. He kissed the sketch of Sakura's forhead and lay down on his bed holding the sketch book to his chest, as he does every night. "Goodnight, Sakura-chan." He said before falling asleep.

/

Naruto woke up to see he was eight again, and he was laying on a dirt path. He then saw a shadow hovering over him; he turned around to see a pink haired eight year old girl.

"Sakura-chan." The young blonde said her name.

Sakura smiled at him and offered him her hand. Naruto smiled and took her hand and was lifted up from the ground. The two just smiled at each other and started walking down the path together.

Minato and Kushina watched on as Naruto and Sakura walked down the endless path together.

And in the real world the two laid in their beds smiling happily at the beautiful dream they both were having.

End of chapter 2

I'm not going to lie, I cried at the ending. Really, I did. It's especially beautiful if you listen to 'Love is…' by Home Made Kazoku feat. Ms. Ooja.

Anyway, things are starting to get good, so tune in next time.

Takeshi1225, out.


End file.
